Fool in the Rain
by glory boots
Summary: Half covered by his Herbology book was a large, tan envelope that was roughly shaped by its contents and in the center was a white label that was peeling and dirty, across which ‘Sirius’ was scrawled in purple ink. Based in the summer that Sirius ran away
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

A cold, brisk wind lifted the loose gold and red scarf of a dark haired boy, standing at the edge of a frozen over lake. His stony grey eyes scanned the expanse of snow laid out before him, untouched and perfect except for the small animal tracks that criss-crossed it every now and then. His face mirrored the eerily blank expression in his eyes as he looked down at his ungloved hands.

One hand was filled with pebbles and small rocks that seemed to be balancing, on the verge of falling from his grasp. He lazily picked out a rock and looked at it. He shifted his hold on it before pulling back his arm and in one swift easy motion he launched it through the air. It arched beautifully slicing though the icy wind before coming back down to the ground, silently disappearing into the powdery snow.

He looked down again at his hands to find another to sling out into the center of the hidden surface of the frozen lake. As he did so he sighed, his breath coming out as a puff of smoke.

"Padfoot?"

The boy turned to his right to look at the person who addressed him. The person was a boy that was dressed warmly in a thick black uniform just like the one the grey eyed boy wore. Both had their school emblem on their chest and the same scarf that was the only color to be found on their clothing apart from the emblem. The boy had messy black hair that was waving around in the chilly wind and a pair of glasses that hid a pair of dazzling hazel eyes. His face was flushed with the cold and he squinted his eyes against the wind as it picked up again.

"Padfoot we're getting cold, we're going to head up."

The grey eyed boy looked behind the messy haired boy at two other boys that were huddling themselves against the winter draft. Remus, a light brown haired boy with bright, honey colored eyes that defied his shabby, tired appearance, watched the two of them with a concerned look. Next to him was Peter, glancing anxiously between the two boys and the castle. His short stout frame shivering as he waited to get out of the cold wind that was blowing his thin, seemingly colorless blonde hair every which way.

"Okay, I'll meet you up there." He replied, picking out another rock and flinging it out into the air.

"Sirius, it's too cold out, you should come in."

"James, I'm fine." Sirius replied with a warning edge in his tone.

"Okay." James said getting the message. "Don't be too long okay mate?"

Sirius just grunted in response and continued tossing the assortment of stones across the vast snow covered lake as his friends trudged up to the castle.

As it got later, the sky grew darker and the cold seemed to sting against his face with more strength and cruelty. James was right, it was cold; Sirius could barely feel his numb red hands as he clumsily fumbled at more pebbles with stiff fingers that refused to obey him.

Finally his frustration got the better of him and he took it out on the rocks, angrily throwing them all as hard as he could away from him. Which it turned out wasn't very far because of the awkward grip he had on them. They scattered, soaring for a short time landing in the snow with a swooshing noise, creating an illogical pattern in the powder.

Sirius put his hands up to his mouth and breathed heavily on them for heat. Once he was able to feel them a bit he stuck his hands under his arms. He jumped softly from foot to foot to get blood flow in his legs again. As he did so the snow around his feet was packed down, at first left with the imprint of his foot, then just a solid tightly packed area of snow.

Suddenly Sirius' feet slipped out from under him and he landed hard on his back. What happened didn't really register at first and then he felt a pain spread through his ribs and he realized he was winded and his lungs were empty. He made a gasp for air, feeling relief as it filled his lungs but at the same time cold and wet as the snow soaked through his clothes. He felt snow melting on his neck and face, sending a shiver down his spine that went right to his icy numb toes.

For some reason he couldn't be bothered to move, his vision was surrounded by the two foot tall wall of snow he fell into. It was quiet. No birds. No crickets. Just the sound of his own breathing as his chest rose and fell, emitting small puffs of fog. The lump of snow he'd packed down with his feet was now jutting out into his back not only making him cold but uncomfortable.

The sound of crunching snow broke up his little winter world and he looked up to see who was bothering him now. He got ready to say some snappy sentence, thinking that James had come back, but instead received an unexpected surprise when his eyes met with the sight of Professor McGonagall.

"Mr. Black! What are you doing?" McGonagall asked in a voice as icy as the lake. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight bun, leaving no sort of warmth for her ears and face which were now turning pink. Judging from her lack of winter clothing, she had come outside to reprimand Sirius without thinking of the cold.

Sirius tilted his head back further to get a better look at her, but that just caused more snow to fall into his collar. He tried to suppress the shiver that ran through his body as the snow melted down his back. He lay flat again, disappearing into his little snow trench feeling the packed in snow push into his back once more.

"I'm having a picnic." Sirius replied to his professor, whose lips had drawn themselves into a very thin line which was a clear indication to Sirius that she was not at all amused.

"Mr. Black you had better get yourself back up to the castle. Immediately." McGonagall said in a hard quiet voice that almost dared him to challenge her.

Normally Sirius might have come up with a charming smart-ass reply, but he didn't feel like pretending to be cheerful nor did he feel like dealing with the argument that would follow if he were to disobey her.

So with more snow falling down his collar he lifted himself out of his icy coffin and started to dust himself off.

McGonagall watched him carefully, noticing his lack of disagreement and gloves. His hands were a startling shade of red and his lips were the slightest shade of blue. She noticed the shivers that he could not completely suppress and the clothing that was so drenched from the snow that it hung heavy on his shoulders. But most of all she notices the sadness that was hidden beneath the anger in his eyes.

When he finished with his unnecessary clean up, he looked at her expectantly with his half frozen hair in his eyes.

"After you, Mr. Black." She said indicating that she would walk behind him to the castle.

Sirius complied and trudged silently up to the castle, dragging his feet through the deep snow, successfully soaking his shoes and whatever dry patch his pants still had up to his thighs. He couldn't feel his feet and occasionally stumbled on the uneven ground as a result. He knew he shouldn't have stayed out so long in this kind of weather especially when he was so underdressed for it, but he didn't care. He didn't really care about anything at the moment. All he wanted was to be left alone.

He turned and looked back at his hole by the lake, but frowned slightly when he couldn't see it. He scowled softly as he realized how McGonagall had discovered his hiding place; by someone who already knew he was there.

"Come Mr. Black, I think you should go to Madame Pomfrey." McGonagall said as they walked through the great oak doors entering the significantly warmer and more welcoming entrance hall. She pulled out her wand and began drying herself off and gestured to Sirius to do the same.

Sirius shook his head, "I'll be fine. See you later Professor." He said monotonously and started dragging his awkward stiff legs towards the marble staircase.

"Mr. Black, that wasn't a suggestion." McGonagall said, pausing in her efforts at drying herself and looking up at him with a stern look in her eye.

"But I'm fine." Sirius lied as he restrained another shiver that was fighting to break loose.

McGonagall looked Sirius up and down. She couldn't help but thinking that he almost looked pathetic. He looked very similar to a lost puppy. His shoulders were slumped in defeat, his bedraggled hair hanging in his face, his clothing almost pulling him down with its weight, and more than before she noticed a sad pleading look in his eyes.

She sighed before saying in an unyielding voice, "Mr. Black, you've been out in the cold for several hours. You're drenched to the bone and shivering. Go to the hospital wing. _Now_."

Sirius heaved a sigh and nodded, his head hanging a little lower than usual, but not noticeably so. He didn't feel like seeing any one, or being anywhere that there were people. Especially in the hospital wing with that overwhelming smell of healing pastes and pepper-up potion that seemed to suffocate anyone who went there in the winter time, no, he couldn't go there.

"I'll be coming up in a little while to see how everything is." McGonagall said returning to drying herself off but still watching him. Sirius caught her meaning, if he didn't go, she would know.

Sirius nodded and preceded up the marble staircase as he had been doing, but once he was half way down the hall instead of continuing down the corridor to the hospital wing, he turned right and went up a small flight of stone stairs that was hidden behind a tapestry. He didn't want to go to the hospital wing; Madame Pomfrey would fuss over him and make him take large quantities of Pepper-up potion, the smell of it gave him a head ache.

He made his way up to the Gryffindor tower to have a long hot shower and change of clothes. He was so deep in though he didn't see the dark stone walls going by him. The walk to the tower was no longer a thought process, it was habit, and he didn't have to think to find his way.

"Well?" demanded a slightly offended lady in pink.

Sirius blinked. He was standing in front of the fat Lady portrait that guarded the tower. He opened his mouth and faltered, he'd forgotten the password. It'd been changed since he gotten back from the Christmas break and he'd been in such a daze the last few days that it had slipped his mind. Instinctively he reached for his back pocket for his two way mirror to ask James, then faltered again. He didn't want to talk to him. He didn't want to talk to anyone. Asking for the password would make an opening for questions that he didn't want to answer. Answers he didn't want to give because they were too difficult to think about.

"I forgot." Sirius said dumbly, his hands dropping to his side.

"Well take your time; I'll be here all day." The Pink Lady said in a slightly sarcastic voice.

"Can't you just let me in?" Sirius asked in an exasperated tone, running a hand through his damp hair, causing water to run down his neck and soak into his cloak.

"Not without a password." She replied in a somewhat childish manner.

Sirius was about to lose his infamously short temper when he heard approaching footsteps echoing off the stone floor and froze. His heart sank thinking it was McGonagall and now he'd have to go to the hospital wing, and this time probably being dragged there by the ear. He thought of making a mad dash down the corridor but instead wearily turned to face his unavoidable doom. But the sight that greeted him was a pleasant surprise considering the circumstances. Lily Evans.

She hated him, he thought she was a thoroughly annoying goody-two-shoes, so he could just get the password and they'd be able to go their separate ways. It all worked out.

"Black, what are you doing?" Lily asked looking at his rather threatening stance. Sirius looked at the accusing finger he was pointing towards the fat lady, his face holding a slightly bewildered expression as if the hand had raised itself all on its own.

Lily tucked her long dark red hair behind her ear, surveying him with her almond shaped green eyes. She seemed perfectly happy to stand around giving him skeptical looks until he answered her question. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other and adjusted the books she was carrying to be in a more comfortable position, then settled her calm but suspicious eyes on Sirius.

"I forgot the password." Sirius said dully and then gestured towards the portrait that guarded the entrance, "Would you mind?"

Lily rolled her eyes and moved to stand before the portrait declaring "Asphodel." causing the portrait to swing forward revealing the Gryffindor common room. Sirius saved that to memory and went through the porthole after Lily, who as predicted, went off in the direction of the fireplace without a backwards glance at him.

Out of habit Sirius looked towards a slightly shadowed corner on the other side of the room. It was furnished with four squishy armchairs that had at one point in time been spread more around the fireplace and the rest of the common room, but as of the previous six years they had been reestablished under a window in that corner. The window above the armchairs was half blocked out with snow and frost so any trace of light that could be found in the dark night sky would be shut out.

Three of the four armchairs were occupied with lazy boys that were strewn over them. One of them was Remus; he was leaning back in the chair with his feet stretched out in front of him while sipping a mug of hot chocolate. Next to him was Peter, who was on the edge of his seat with his small watery blue eyes fastened on James who was recounting one of the more adventurous situations he and Sirius had gotten themselves into over the holiday break.

As he stood watching them he took an unintentional step forward and faltered suddenly when he realized what he was doing. He turned towards the dorms and started walking. He cast one last look over his friends and his own empty armchair, then he realized Remus was watching him. He caught Sirius' gaze and tilted his head slightly to the side in question and Sirius responded with a small shake of the head. Remus nodded and turned back to James and Peter while watching Sirius go up the dorm stairs out of the corner of his eye.

Once Sirius was in his dorm he went straight to the bathroom and flung off his soaked clothing and got into a steaming hot shower. At first the water felt like it was burning his skin and he could barely stand directly beneath the water, he had to stand to the side and only put his feet in. His skin was turning bright red as the blood started to flow through his veins again, causing him to feel like he was burning from the inside out. His wet hair was dripped cold water onto his back until he finally his stuck his head under the water, washing away the last of the cold afternoon.

He stood in the shower a while, not thinking about anything in particular, just trying to relax. He gave up about twenty minutes later when his skin and his fingers were all wrinkled from being in the water too long. Sirius went through the slow methodical movements of turning off the shower and drying himself thoroughly. Leaving the bathroom, he wrapped the towel around his waist, moving towards his trunk to find his pajamas.

He opened it and moved things about, wondering where in hells name his sweatpants had gone. He found his grey shirt and pulled it roughly over his head getting the collar wet when it was dragged over his damp hair. He shivered a bit when the collar met his skin but continued his search for the pants. He found a pair of boxers and pulled then out hastily knocking a book aside in the messy trunk. When he had his boxers on he looked back in the trunk and froze.

Half covered by his Herbology book was a large, tan envelope that was roughly shaped by its contents and in the center was a white label that was peeling and dirty across which '_Sirius_' was scrawled in purple ink. He eyed it warily before slowly bending to pick it up. His hand took hold of it so carefully that anyone would have thought he was picking up an explosive. Turning it over slowly, he picked at the corner of the seal, wanting so much to open it—yet so desperately wishing it would go away.

He turned it over again and looked at the label. Purple ink. He could picture it easily. Her hand gripping the pen and scribbling his name quickly across the label, her bracelets clicking together with her hand motions. Black nail polish that was chipping at the edges.

"_I can never keep them nice, they always chip."_

Sirius shook his head and threw the envelope roughly on his bed and started looking through his trunk furiously. He was frowning. Not in confusion, but in an effort to hold back the tears he didn't want to acknowledge. He started throwing his stuff out of his trunk. He just needed to find his sweatpants then he could bury that stupid envelope again. He reached the bottom of the trunk, which was now almost entirely emptied of it contents apart from a few pieces of parchment, the odd sock and some gadgets.

He kicked the trunk and instantly regretted doing that because his toe began to throb with pain. Sirius limped over to his bed and sat on the edge of it resting his elbows on his knees and putting his head in his hands, threading his fingers through his hair as it curtained his face. He was breathing heavily and he sniffed loudly as he began to lose control of his emotions.

Sirius heard the doorknob rattle as someone grabbed it and turned it, opening the door.

"Sirius? Are you okay? We thought we heard something…"

Sirius looked up with red eyes and saw James, Remus and Peter standing in the doorway looking a bit taken back.

"Merlin, what happened in here?" Peter said bluntly, looking around at the contents of Sirius' trunk that were strewn around the room.

Remus and James were watching Sirius apprehensively wondering how to handle this, they weren't sure what would set Sirius off and what wouldn't.

Sirius saved them the trouble by swinging his legs up onto the bed. He was about to close the hangings when he saw he wasn't alone, that stupid envelope was there staring at him. He grabbed it roughly and flung it across the room, and ripped the hangings closed around him. He tensed up when he heard a crack at the envelope hit the wall.

He felt a terrible dead feeling in his stomach. What if he broke it? It's all he had left of her. What has he done? He wanted so badly to fling open he hangings and get the envelope, to see if it was broken, to open it and remember. Maybe there was something there to show where she was. But what if there wasn't? He was too stubborn; he stayed put, getting under his covers and closing his eyes to go to sleep,deciding his pajama pants were more trouble than they were worth.


	2. Chapter 2

I forgot to mention in my first chapter, thank you Melissa for helping with my title! She is godly!

Also thank you to those who reviewed! 

ShoesDoNotExist (haha ShoesDoNotExist likes Glory boots story, yeah ok lame joke...)

DotzZ

Zenna

Living-is-easy-with-eyes-closed

Batman Sporks

Chapter two

Morning light shone through a small crack in the hangings of the bed, slicing through the peaceful darkness. On the bed, barely visible by the slight illumination was a lump of a sixteen-year-old boy, hiding beneath a mass of rumpled blankets. The blankets moved every now and then as the boy readjusted his position, trying to get comfortable and maybe some more sleep. The red blankets completely covered his sleeping form; apart from one foot which stuck out, hanging over the edge of the bed, feeling somewhat odd and naked compared to the rest of his body. His sheets and covers were in a state of disarray; turned sideways and half falling off the bed after dealing with the almost nonstop movement of Sirius Black having a sleepless night.

His mind was too preoccupied to allow him to sleep properly. He'd eventually gotten a few short hours sleep, but not enough to rejuvenate him. Sirius was left feeling worse than before, this not being the first sleepless night he'd had since the holidays. He lifted his arms and flopped them forward, effectively folding back the blankets that covered his face. He let out a long breath and looked at the ceiling, thinking back on what had happened the day before. His insides squirmed at the thought of how he'd lost control yesterday, especially in front of his friends; he didn't want them to know or ask questions. He rolled over hiding his face in his pillow, just about smothering himself.

He felt too lazy to move, and tried to breath through the pillow which only allowed for him to take short gasps of breath. He started to feel his lungs tighten and he made stronger intakes of breath. Finally, the shortness of breath took hold and he had to roll onto his back again, properly filling his lungs with air. He turned to his right but quickly shrunk back and turned his head to the left as the intruding stream of light hit his eyes.

After laying still for a few more moments his stomach growled; loudly enough so he couldn't ignore it. He moved his arm to pick up the edges of the hangings and peer into the outside world. Empty. With a swift arm movement he flung back the hangings to reveal his dorm room, vacant of its other occupants.

The room had been cleaned, all evidence of the previous night's events removed. He realized that his friends must have cleaned the room this morning while he was asleep because he didn't remember hearing their fumbling movements while he lay awake for a good portion of the night.

He flipped back the covers and ran a hand through his hair as he got up and stretched. Sirius went around his to the end of his bed and opened the trunk. He tensed when he saw what was lying on top. _The stupid bloody envelope. _He sighed and saw that everything else that had been thrown the previous night had been fixed and placed neatly inside his trunk, the large tan envelope being the last thing because it could not be fixed with magic since no one could even tell if it was broken or even what was inside.

Sirius tentatively picked it up and held it close to his ear, gently shaking it. He winced as he heard rattling and knocking sounds that he hadn't heard any other time he'd shaken it. He looked guiltily at the package, picking once more at the seal, staring at the label.

He stopped and drummed his fingers on the envelope, impatient to open it but to nervous to do so. He sighed again and just placed it carefully on his bed. He stood back and went to rummaging through his trunk again but would stop every once and a while, his curiosity forcing him to look at the package. He grew frustrated with himself eventually and covered it with his blankets then continued his search for something to wear.

He quickly got dressed and complied with his stomach's wishes of food, leaving to go to the great hall, completely forgetting about the envelope sitting hidden under his covers.

Sirius slid into a seat next to James, keeping his eyes downcast indicating that he didn't want to talk. James understood and continued with his oatmeal, bickering with Remus over how appropriate it would be to set a lion loose in the Slytherin common room.

"No."

"Ok, they may be stupid, but they're not that stupid. The Slytherins can handle a lion or two. It'll just give them a bit of a scare." James said, shoveling the oatmeal into his mouth.

"James, the first years can't handle that sort of thing. The most they could possibly do to it would be levitate it for a few minutes, if that. They might even be too scared to react."

"They'll live." James said waving it off.

"No."

"Come on, who's afraid of a little kitty cat?"

"It's a bit bigger than a cat."

"So?"

"And slightly more carnivorous."

"Actually they're the same."

"Well, bigger teeth anyway."

James chomped his teeth together in a weak imitation of a lion.

"And bigger body's, stronger. More dangerous in general."

"Aww, ruin my fun Moony."

"No lions."

"What about a wolf, they're smaller."

"Still dangerous, stronger, bigger, sharper teeth." Remus said and looked at James warily as the messy haired boy began to smirk.

"Oh Grandma, what big eyes you have!" James said in a falsetto voice doing an impression of little red riding hood.

Remus rolled his eyes and settled back down to drink his coffee.

"All the better to see you with my dear." James said in a loud deep voice.

Peter laughed at his friend's display and watched eagerly from next to Remus.

"Oh grandma what big ears you have!" He said in a girly voice once more, standing up as he got more into what he was doing.

At this point he was gaining attention and people were turning to look at his idiotic behavior, some were standing up to see what exactly he was doing.

"All the better to hear you with my dear." He said in a deep voice with a wolfish grin, looking pointedly at Remus.

"Oh Grandma, what sharp teeth you have." James said in a high pitched voice again, eyes wide with innocence.

"All the better to eat you with!" He said in a deep gravelly voice, suddenly lunging across the table tackling the unsuspecting Remus, who fell back with a shout.

There was a round of laughter at James' display, and he got up from Remus with a playful smile, helping up his recently tackled friend. He quickly hopped over the table and sat down next to Sirius, acting innocent under the amused and reprimanding glares of the teachers.

Sirius said nothing and grabbed another piece of toast, smothered it in jam with one stroke of his knife, then began to eat it. He noticed James' sideways glance at him and the badly disguised disappointment on James' face at not getting a reaction out of his best friend.

Sirius quickly buttered another piece of toast and left the table, not in the mood for his friends' antics. He took a bite out of the toast as he walked out of the great hall, quickly looking up at the ceiling to see the weather before he got into the entrance hall.

Large grey clouds were rolling around gloomily in the sky, not raining, not snowing, just that dull useless kind of weather that's depressing without the benefits. The clouds seemed to be carrying a purple tint and in one place the sky was a slightest bit brighter than the rest as the sun battled to break through. It wouldn't though, not today. Today the clouds completely drowned it out in its sullen murky depths.

Sirius' view was suddenly blocked as he walked through the doorway into the entrance hall. He look down again at the floor to watch were he was going. There were puddles all over the floor from students and the like coming in and out trekking snow and pools of water as the snow melted from their clothes. Sirius didn't particularly care, so he just walked through the puddles, soaking the edges of his pants as they trailed through the water.

A sharp bang of the handle of a mop hitting the floor caught his attention, startling him out of his inattentive state. The sound of the wooden handle hitting the cold stone floor echoed throughout the entrance hall, bouncing off the cold, yet warm and welcoming stone walls. Stupid mop. Everything was a reminder. Even a mop, her pale, dainty hands holding the mop, managing to drum her black painted nails on it in annoyance.

"_Are you kidding me?" _

Sirius looked down at the water he was trailing and grimaced. He couldn't help it, the summer rain always caught him when he least expected it, always…

—No. He could think about it; about her. He couldn't handle it yet. He wasn't ready, he still hadn't convinced himself that it wasn't his fault; he still couldn't help but blame himself. He couldn't stop the guilt that flooded his senses when he thought about the summer. It was too early to bring up the memories. But he couldn't stop remembering. He didn't want to forget. He couldn't forget even if he wanted too.

The first cold, rainy day of the summer was also the day that he met her. It was another one of those ridiculous circumstances in which Sirius had to have a run in with his brother on the first day of the rainiest week of July. Regulus, always the goodie-two-shoes, stuck up prick that he was, had to go running to his parents when Sirius threatened to dismember him limb by limb for insulting Remus. Sirius knew that his parents wouldn't understand any of it so he figured, why bother sticking around to be punished?

That decision, of course, left him trudging through the rain with no particular destination ahead. The gutters along the streets were overflowing with water as the rain pounded down onto the road in drops that seemed the size of bowling balls, that's what Sirius had thought anyway as he walked along the street thoroughly regretting not grabbing a jacket or umbrella or something. The rain was so heavy that the world seemed dull and grey, nothing past five feet around him was visible, just the dim headlights of passing cars.

After walking pointlessly for a few blocks, taking random turns when he felt it necessary, he stumbled upon a little corner store with a big obnoxious sign glowing through the dim rain. Sirius didn't even bother reading the name, the only thing he was concerned with was the glowing red sign that read _open 24 hours_.

He crossed the small parking lot that was in front of the store and squinted through the glass door and saw a few isles of food and two walls lined with glass doors that held in the cold of the refrigerated items. Sirius half smiled with relief upon seeing the white plastic _come in we're open_ sign stuck to the glass door. He pushed open the door and walked in feeling a rush of cool air greeting him and the sound of a bell jingling from the movement of the door.

He closed his eyes and leaned back against the door appreciating the sound of the rain pounding on the roof and windows rather than his head. There was medley of sounds floating around the small store; a dull chatter of a radio at the checkout counter, the sound of a fan buzzing as it swiveled to and fro gracing a small semi-circle of space with a refreshing breeze, a dim hum of the freezers, and the muted sound of someone in a back room rifling through boxes.

Sirius shivered as the cool air began to soak into his wet clothes. As he moved away from the doors he squeezed his arms to wring out the water from his clothes, dripping a trail of water from his clothes. His foot slipped a little and he threw out his hands on reflex to catch his balance. He slid his foot forward a little and hopped forward.

A smirk grew across his face. He walked to one side of the store and turned facing the opposite wall. Taking a quick look around to make sure he was still alone he took off at a sprint towards the wall then jutted his feet out, one slightly in front of his body and skidded out across the wet floor. He stuck out his arms in front of him as he reached the other side of the store and stopped himself from smashing into the freezer lined wall.

"_Are you kidding me?_"

Sirius' heart jumped. He turned and looked to see who had addressed him. Standing in the doorway in the back wall of the store was a girl about his age, wearing a red collared shirt with a white plastic name tag pinned to it that read _Alex_. Her brown eyes scanned the wet floor, taking in the amount of water that Sirius had trailed everywhere.

She reached back around the doorway and grabbed a mop, walking stiffly over to the lake of rainwater that Sirius seemed to have created in front of the door. The water soaked up in the edges of her jeans as she slapped down the mop onto the floor and began swiveling it uselessly in circles.

This was what seemed like her thousandth time mopping that day. Her hands were strangling the handle in frustration at going over the same spot repeatedly in the last few hours of her shift. The mop was so tired from this chore that it seemed to not even pick up any of the water it was moving through.

As if realizing this, Alex stopped what she was doing and looked up at Sirius again glaring daggers and tapping her fingers on the mop. Sirius looked guiltily at the floor and then back at the girl giving her a nervous shrug.

"Did it occur to you that if you make a mess, someone has to clean it up?" She asked in a tone that implied she was struggling to control her anger.

"Well, I'm sure as hell glad it ain't me." Sirius said boldly.

The girl was so startled by his response that she took a moment before settling on giving him the most pissed off look that she could muster. She didn't even bother trying to hide what she was feeling for this nuisance of a boy. She silently stomped back to the other room and returned instantly with ragged looking towels that appeared to be leading the rough life.

"Allie, where are you going with my towels?" Asked a short stout man leaning out of the back room and upon spotting the puddle continued with, "Oh, clean that up, someone might slip in it."

Alex shot him a look that implied she would strongly like to curse at him but wouldn't because of the nuisance boy customer standing by her.

"Who would be stupid enough to fall in a bit of water? That's like the banana thing in the movies." Sirius said strolling around the outskirts of the puddle making it bigger while wearing a look that implied he either didn't know or didn't give a damn. "It's ridiculous."

But the moment the last syllable of his last word left his mouth, he stood on a ripped edge of his jeans and tripped himself. In what felt like slow motion, he fell, waving his arms about in an attempt to either maintain balance or fly, both of which had a zero chance of happening. It also caused his feet to completely slip out from under him, reaching waist height as the rest of his body fell.

Two things happened almost instantaneously. One the stout man came running out from the doorway in a panic over being sued if Sirius had the slightest bruise. And two, Alex just about fell over herself laughing.

"Oh my God, are you alright?"

Sirius didn't reply, instead he rubbed the back of his head and observed the brown haired girl use the mop for support with one hand as she laughed grasping her stomach with the other.

"You should have seen the look on your face." She finally managed to wheeze out.

"Sir? Sir? Are you alright?" the stout man was asking.

Of course he was alright, just a little sore on his ass maybe, still fine though. But Sirius knew how to milk a situation for what it's worth, especially with this guy.

"All I wanted was my Dr. Pepper!" He wailed still holding his head. "I thought walking to the corner store would be safe!"

Alex looked at him again and started laughing even harder.

"Sir, I assure you this is a very safe establishment." The stout man said in an anxious voice.

"Then why does my head hurt?" Sirius asked dramatically. "That is not the usual price I pay for a soft drink! Do _you_ smash your head to acquire a beverage?"

"I'm sure you've done it before, it explains everything." Alex said still giggling a little.

"No, Sir." The man said, shushing Alex.

"Then how come I did?"

"It was obviously an accident sir. I'm very sorry. May I offer you a Pepsi—"

"—Dr Pepper!" Sirius interrupted, to which Alex responded by rolling her eyes.

"Yes,yes. And perhaps some food? You know, nourishment for the growing boy?"

"I'm a man!"

"I'm sure." Alex said sarcastically.

"Yes, sorry. But, how does that sound?" he said waving at Alex to shut up.

Sirius gave the man a disgruntled look "Yeah that'll make _everything_ better, 'How much for that Dr. Pepper? Oh, just a concussion? Sure bring it on!"

"Sir, it was obviously an accident, Alex was already cleaning it up, you should have known it was there, you were the one that dragged all the water in."

"How can one person bring in that much water?"

"You were completely soaked." Alex said beginning to mop again.

"No I wasn't." Sirius argued childishly.

"Look at you!" Alex eclaimed, "You're soaked!"

"That's because I fell in a gigantic ocean of water in _your_ store."

"Alex go get the caution wet floor sign for this mess. —And sir I can assure you that this was an accident." The stout man said waving her away seeing as she wasn't exactly helping the situation.

"I should have gone to the grocery store down the road; at least they don't have an obstacle course for a store." Sirius said pouting.

The man sighed and gave up, offering the only thing the store could, "Anytime that you feel you need a drink or a bite to eat, just come down here and it'll be on us."

"Can I have some ice for my head too?"

"Of course, Alex go see to that, will you?" The man asked her as she stood up the bright yellow caution sign, making her once again roll her eyes.

"No, No it's cool, I was just kidding around with you. I don't need anything." Sirius said as Alex started walking away. He stood up and dusted himself off, frowning in annoyance at his ass, right leg and some of his shirt, all of which were wet from being in the puddle. "Sorry, just having a little fun, I'm fine really I don't need anything. How much for a Dr. Pepper?"

The stout man looked startled but somewhat relieved at the same time; he shook his head and went back into the store room closing the door after him.

Alex turned around and smacked Sirius over the back of the head as soon as her manager was gone, "You jerk!" she said furiously.

"What?" Sirius said completely caught off guard.

"He has a bad heart! Do you know how much stress you've just caused him?" she said still holding her mop.

"Shit, really?" Sirius asked starting to feel guilty.

"No." Alex shrugged and went back to mopping.

Sirius laughed and walked over to the counter. He pulled himself up and sat on it flicking the hair out of his eyes, "I'm Sirius by the way."

"Interesting name." She replied not looking up from her mopping, obviously not as interested in him as he seemed to be in her.

"Some people usually reply with their own name." Sirius said off-handedly, observing her mop.

Alex looked at him strangely, then pointed at her name tag.

Sirius' mouth formed a little 'O', "Everyone calls you that, what's your full name?"

"None of your business." Alex said looking a bit startled by his confidence.

"No, not cause I'm a stalker or anything," Sirius said realizing how weird that must have sounded, "What's your middle name?"

"Still none of your business."

"It can't be that terrible." Sirius insisted swinging his legs back and forth from his seat on the counter.

"It is."

"Ha, mine's Orion."

"I thought you said Onion." Alex laughed, "But yeah, that is pretty bad. your parents into astronomy or something?"

"No, not really." Sirius said "I was named Sirius after my great-great-something grandfather, and Orion after my father."

"Oh, okay."

"And you middle name is…?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because the middle name is usually the most embarrassing name."

"All the more reason to _not_ tell you."

"Aw come on I told you mine."

"I didn't ask what it was."

Sirius made a pouty face and looked sadly at her.

Alex looked at him cautiously, "If you tell anyone I'll slaughter you."

Sirius looked at the ceiling in consideration, "Seems fair." He concluded.

She sighed heavily, "Maxima."

"Yeah, that is pretty bad." Sirius said mournfully.

"Shut up." She said with a smirk as she threw a packet of chips at him from a stand nearby.

He caught them and asked "Can I eat these?"

"Only if you pay for them." She said, watching him out of the corner of her eyes to make sure he didn't open them anyway.

"Put it on my tab." Sirius said opening the bag.

"Hey!" she yelled in objection.

"What's going on?" The stout man asked coming out of the back room with a wet towel pressed to his forehead.

"He didn't pay for those chips." She said glaring in Sirius' direction, expecting to be yelled at by her manager because of him.

Sirius threw a couple chips into his mouth and gave the manager a big grin as he chomped obnoxiously.

The man gestured her over, in response she rolled her eyes and obliged.

"What?" she asked.

"Give him what he wants; he could sue us for what just happened, so let's just stay on his good side for now ok?" He said looking nervously over at Sirius, giving him a smile and a nod before slapping the wet cloth back on his head and going in the backroom again closing the door behind him.

"This is ridiculous." Alex said rolling her eyes.

"Now Max, don't be angry."

She froze, "What did you call me?"

Sirius smirked "_Maxxy_."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

The lights inside the store shined happily ignorant to the dark and gloomy gray that pressed in around it engulfing the outside world in a dismal onslaught of summer rain. Posters stuck to the windows advertising various detergents, lollies and beers calling to passersby like a sirens song, tempting them to escape the never ending drumroll of the rain as it gushed from the sky. The neon _open_ sign was a small glimpse of life through the downpour that clogged the vision like a grey veil. As Sirius pushed the door open a pleasant dinging sound interrupted the monotonous and unyielding pounding of the rain as it relentlessly assaulted the glass windows of the safe haven that was a little corner store. The opening of the door had allowed a small part of a sudden unexpected howling wind to break into the gentle silence of the store, startling the only occupant of the room.

"Oh, it's you again" said an unenthusiastic girl as she paused in the chore of restocking the fridge of soft drinks to his left.

"Hey Max," Sirius asked shaking his head in a dog like manner, spraying a small radius with the excess water from his flawless black hair, "Didjya miss me?"

"No." She said bluntly in response, making a deliberately exaggerated motion of wiping water from her face, bracelets on her wrists jingling as she did so.

"Aw, sure you did, you just don't know it yet." Sirius said happily bouncing over to the counter squelching water all over the place as he did so and plopping himself on top of it.

Max looked at him in angry disbelief, slamming the fridge closed.

"What?" Sirius asked cutely.

"Seriously?"

He cocked his head to the side giving her an amused innocent look, which she probably would have believed if it weren't for the smirk that was dancing across his lips and reflected in his sparkling grey eyes.

She narrowed her eyes at him and scowled as she went to the back room feeling a sense of déjà vu as she snatched the mop roughly by the handle and dragged it back out to the floor.

She started the arduous movements of tracing the puddles on the floor with her mop, getting more and more irritated with each pointless stroke of the old overused mop. She looked up at the culprit to glare at him, but upon seeing that amused twinkle in his eye again, she straightened up and started doing what she always did when she was irritated. She began drumming her painted black nails on the only surface available; the handle of the mop.

Sirius seemed to miss the hostility in the motion and instead seemed intensely interested in the motion itself.

Max cleared her throat to catch his attention and so that he might get the hint that she was pissed.

"You're nails are black." He said blankly.

Max looked a little startled but maintained the glare on her face. "Yes."

"Why."

"I'm Satanic." She said sarcastically, feeling as if she were being interrogated by her mother again.

"Say what?" Sirius asked blankly.

"I painted them!" She snapped.

"Sorry." Sirius said putting his hands up defensively, thoroughly wishing he took muggle studies like Remus had told him to. He seen a few girls with painted nails on Hogsmede weekends but since it wasn't allowed at school he hadn't seen anyone with such an unusual colour before.

"Well?" She said finally giving up on him noticing her temper.

"Well what?" He asked getting more confused by the second.

"Are you going to say sorry?" She asked once again drumming her nails.

"…For what?" He asked cautiously.

"The puddles!" She said now completely frustrated, and threw down her mop.

"Oh, yeah ok." He said in an appeasing way.

"Not 'yeah ok!' Yes or no!"

"OK! Jeez, I'm sorry! Do you yell at all your freaking customers or what?"

"Just the ones that piss me off."

"So all of them then? 'Cause I've yet to see you happy!"

"Yes you have!"

"When?"

"When you fell in that damn puddle you made last week!"

"All the more reason not to get involved with this puddle, I'll fall." Sirius argued crossing his arms across his chest.

Max let out a frustrated scowl, "Ugh! You're such an idiot."

"What the hell does falling have to do with my intelligence?"

"Everything!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"You're so annoying. Why can't you just crawl back into the hole you came out of?"

"After you." He said in a sickeningly sweet tone.

"_Ugh!_" She flipped her hair back out of her eyes flicked the mop at him spraying him with a healthy sum of rain water, but at the same time successfully startling him into falling backwards, head over heals off the counter.

There was a moment off shocked silence and after which Sirius exhaled painfully with a groan. Looking up he saw Max come around the counter, stopping right above him.

"Are you alright?" She asked in a shocked voice.

"Yes," Sirius said in a high pitch squeak.

All of a sudden Max's face contorted from worried to a hysterical smile as uncontrollable laughter took over her body.

"You know," Sirius wheezed out, "If you were the one doing the falling, I don't think you'd be laughing this much."

This only served to, if possible, make her laugh harder. Clutching at her stomach as it quickly became sore from laughing so much, she couldn't even speak; she just collapsed on the floor next to him.

Slowly Sirius recovered from being winded and Max's laughter subsided to a small giggle every now and then.

"Can you do that again?" She asked with a smirk.

"No." He said flatly as he got up, dusting off his pants before extending a hand to help her up.

"Are you going to keep doing that every time you come here?" Max asked picking up the mop and finished cleaning up the puddle. "Because then I suppose I can deal with your visits."

"Yeah I do have a tendency to light up people's days." Sirius said nodding in agreement.

"Arrogant prick." She said with a shake of her head making Sirius let out a bark of laughter.

"Naw! I like to call it self confidence." Sirius said jumping back up on the counter.

"Like I said, arrogant prick." Max said with a grin as she put the mop away in the back room returning a moment later with the caution sign for the floor.

"You know, I'm normally extremely graceful. Like a swan."

Max snorted in disbelief. "Maybe one day, right now you're just the ugly ducking."

"You better bloody well take that back! I'm beautiful." Sirius smirked setting himself back up on his perch on the counter again.

Max shook her head with a small smile on her face. "Is that what your Mummy tells you?"

"No." Sirius said crossing his arms defiantly, "She says I'm her perfect little angel."

"Are those her exact words?"

"Well her exact words are 'you shame me, what did I ever do to deserve an ungrateful boy like you?'" Sirius said raising his voice to an unbearably high pitch so that his voice broke several times in his attempt. "But I can read between the lines, I'm perfect in each and every way."

Max laughed, "Where did you learn to read?"

"I taught myself, aren't I a clever boy?"

"Ha, yeah, sure." She laughed leaning on the counter next to him, staring out at the rain that was still pelting down against the windows, they gloomy grey world making weak and useless attacks on the windows. The light and warmth of the store seemed to taunt it, as if the cheery cool was too much for the hot muggy rain. There was another howl of wind that rattled at the door in an impatient frustrated way momentarily gaining Sirius' attention.

"I hope the wind let's up, it's going to be a bitch playing Quidditch in this."

Sirius tore his eyes away from the window to look at his best friend. James frowned thoughtfully as another screaming gale ripped through the incomprehensible monotone of Professor Binns. Sirius sighed, he hadn't paid attention at all, not that he was really bothered by missing History of Magic but James on the other hand was usually just as bored. The two of them always chose to sit at the back by a window so they could amuse themselves in peace. But they hadn't talked at all this lesson, Sirius had completely zoned out again. He was too busy thinking about his summer and Max to even pay attention to what was going on around him. The more he tried to push her from his mind, the more stubbornly she remained, taunting him with memories. Of course, that would be what she'd do, the more you pushed her the more she dug her heels in. It was as if he couldn't escape that little convenience store, what used to be the thing that got him through his summer was haunting him at Hogwarts.

Sirius dropped his head in his hands trying to focus on something else, or even better to completely clear his mind, to void out all thoughts that dared trespass into his head. Another shriek of wind had him clapping his hands over his ears. Why couldn't he stop thinking about it, why couldn't he stop obsessing over her?

"Padfoot?" James asked in a startled whisper that broke though his hands reaching his ears easily. "Are you alright, mate?"

"I, Uh- earache." Sirius grunted not wanting to talk to anyone.

"What's bothering you?"

"My ears."

"Why won't you talk to me?" he asked in a frustrated tone.

"I _am_ talking to you."

"No you're not!" James insisted, "Look I haven't said anything for the last week but come on, you've been upset ever since you got back from-"

"I'm fine!" Sirius hissed.

"Stop lying to me! I know when you're okay and when I especially know when you're not okay. You are not fine! You've just been moping around, normally when something's bothering you, you take it out on Snape or Filch or anyone who crosses you damn path. But now you're just sitting around doing nothing, you haven't hung out with _your best friends_ for the last week and you've been taking it out on us instead of venting through your usual methods."

"_James-"_

"You didn't even come out last night! On a _full moon._"

Sirius pushed his palms into his eyes. The full moon! Had he really forgotten the full moon? He mentally calculated, quickly running the week through his mind. No that wasn't until Thursday and today was- Crap- Friday. No! He had missed it. How could that have slipped his mind? What was wrong with him? He'd never missed a full moon not since they'd become Animagi. How could he have done that to Remus? No wonder James was looking a little worse for the wear today, he'd had to amuse a werewolf by himself. Pete was near useless, there was only so many times a werewolf could be distracted by a rat running in circles.

"Where the hell were you last night?"

"Look, I'm just trying to deal with something right now; can you just leave it alone?"

"Why can't you tell me what's going on? Maybe I can help?"

"You can't help with this one."

"You've never had a problem with talking to me before, what could possibly be so bad that you won't talk to me?"

"_I said leave it alone!_" Sirius snarled, "This is one thing I can't- I just can't, alright? Now shut up!"

Sirius pulled his parchment towards him and looked steadily at Professor Binns and for the first time in five years picked up his quill and began taking notes for History of Magic.

"Are you seriously taking notes? That's how badly you don't want to talk to me?" James said in disgust. Sirius knew James wasn't disgusted in his taking notes, rather the fact that a month before it would have been more likely to catch Sirius taking a nap in devil's snare than to take notes on the Goblin revolution of 1683, and now Sirius was making the choice to do just that instead of telling his best mate what was on his mind.

Sirius' scowl weakened as he caught the look on his best friend's face. James features were scrunched up in a look that screamed hurt and betrayal. He was glaring angrily at his notes, his hand was clenched so tightly around the leg of their desk that his knuckles were turning white. James frustration and hurt at being so shut out by Sirius for the last week was evidently taking its toll on him. They'd never had secrets before; they shared everything from their most embarrassing to their most shameful. They had always been there for each other since they started Hogwarts. No matter what walls Sirius put up to shut people out James had always already safely behind it with Sirius, He'd never shut him out so completely before. Sirius could feel his anger ebbing away.

_I should apologize. It's not fair that I'm taking this out on him._

Sirius turned to James but just as he opened his mouth class let out and in the blink of an eye James had snatched up his back and stormed out of the classroom. Sirius was left behind looking pretty surprised at being so abandoned. James had just walked out on him.


	4. Chapter 4

Just want to say thanks to 2Blizzy, I had that last chapter sitting around almost finished and you got me motivated to keep writing. Thank you!

Chapter Four

"Mr. Black?"

Sirius blinked a few times, slowly coming back to the world. He looked around and saw many expectant faces peering at him, some looking more eager than others, either looking forward to his usual smart ass come back or just for someone to get yelled at. Remus and Peter- no, James were sitting more towards the front. Sirius noticed that he was actually sitting with Peter, who usually sat with Remus, just because if he didn't he probably get distracted by James and Sirius and come dangerously close to failing the class. But James? Why wasn't he sitting with Sirius?

"Mr. Black?" Professor McGonagall barked at him again, "Yes or no?"

Sirius then realized what had originally caught his attention, Professor McGonagall was standing at the front of the room just about burning a hole into his head with her glare. Sirius looked over to Remus and James again, this time for help seeing as he had absolutely no clue what McGonagall was trying to ask him. James just looked towards the front of the room, determined not to look at him. Remus on the other hand was shaking his head staring at Sirius with wide eyes.

"Uh-er, no?" Sirius said.

Professor McGonagal looked to her side at Remus suspiciously, Remus just gave her a blank look, his face the picture of innocence.

"And why is that, Mr. Black?" She asked.

Sirius froze and glanced at Remus again, who looked to be struggling to think of a way to convey the answer. He suddenly horizontal slashing motions with his hands. _No._ Then Remus continued to link his thumbs and made flapping motions with his hands. _Fly._

"Can't Fly." Sirius said and saw Remus smack his hand to his head out of the corner of his eyes. James started chuckling but thankfully seemed to take pity on his friend and made a small gesture with his wand transfiguring his ink into a small bird.

"I mean, no birds." Sirius corrected himself.

McGonagall raised an eyebrow and James was silently laughing to himself and Remus was just shaking his head making gestures with his hands. Remus made those horizontal slashing motions again and flicked his wand, accidentally spraying James with sparks making James jump and fall off his seat.

McGonagall started to turn and Sirius tried to catch her attention and help his friends, by saying loudly and a little overzealously, "CAN'T TURN INTO BIRDS!"

McGonagall jumped and turned back to Sirius, not seeing James scramble back into his seat, "Er- yes. That's right, They can't be turned into birds." McGonagall said, "Alright that's all for today, for next class I'd like to see a two page essay on the magical theorem explaining why."

Sirius exhaled and looked down at his paper, on was a poor rendition of a small convenience store, windows revealing what vaguely resembled fridges lining the walls of half of the store, disproportionate shelves occupying the other half. And scratched thickly into the paper wearing through in places was a black glaring open sign. Short black lines slashed across the image pooling in front of a boxy lopsided footpath.

Ugh! This was ridiculous! Sirius scrunched up the bit of parchment, but the action soon turned to tearing and the rough sketch was turned into a crumbled, rejected looking little pile. Sirius glared heartily at it before setting it on fire with a prod of his wand.

"_Mr. Black! No fires in the classroom!"_

"Sorry, Professor." Sirius said quickly putting out the smoldering remains and brushing the damp ashes off the desk watching them fall to the ground in heavy clumps.

As the ashes hit the ground they broke apart and fell into a pile. He slid his shoe across them flattening them out, spreading them across the pavement. He heard her exhale, smoke billowing out in the corner off his vision.

They were sitting on the curb, next to the convenience store; Max had her legs stretched out in front of her, slouching a little, head bent, watching her fingers trail over the stitching on her jeans. Every once in a while she'd lift her right hand to her mouth, close her eyes and take a drag on her cigarette. Sirius watched the end light up, orange and red, hear the quiet almost mute crackle of the cigarette burning down through the paper and tobacco.

Max leaned her head back and opened her mouth watching the smoke slowly rise out twisting and winding towards the sky. She liked doing that he noticed. Whenever she'd exhale she'd do something new contorting her mouth to try to manipulate the smoke. Move it in different ways, exhale fast, exhale slow, one quick puff.

She stretched her arm out and flicked her thumb against the filter, dropping ashes on the pavement again. She roused from her daze and look over at Sirius, forehead creasing lightly as she frowned, curiosity in her eyes.

"Sorry," she apologized and lifted the pack from next to her in offering, "Want one?"

Sirius smiled lightly and shook his head, "I'm good."

She smiled and put the pack down, leaning back on her hands.

"What did the big chimney say to the little chimney?" Max suddenly asked turning to Sirius.

Sirius raised an eyebrow, "What kinda chimney's are you hanging out with?"

"Shuddup." She said taking another puff, "It's a joke. Why do you have to ruin my fun?"

"You have fun with talking chimney's? You are one strange girl." Sirius said with a smirk.

"Says the guy who talks to his reflection." Max laughed.

Earlier that morning, Sirius had been talking on his two way mirror to James and hadn't noticed Max sitting on the curb in front of the store until she was well within hearing range. Sirius could understand how it might have looked strange, she did catch the end of a pep talk he was giving James about Lily. More so that it ended with "don't worry about it plenty of fish in the sea, you're a sexy beast, mate, you're bound to catch a few.-Oh shit! Hey Max."

"Every man needs a little confidence boost, you know, a nice pep talk to get him going."

"Do you talk to yourself often?" Max asked deliberately twisting his words while maintaining an innocent look.

"I happen to give champion pep talks so why wouldn't I give myself one every now and again." Sirius said proudly.

Max laughed and took a puff. Making an 'O' with her lips she then flicked her cheek and a smoke ring popped out.

Sirius grinned, "So what did the possessed chimneys say to each other?"

"The big chimney said 'You're too little to smoke.'"

"That may have been the worst joke I've ever heard." Sirius said with a chuckle, "Coming in a close second to your life."

"Oh, har har." Max replied with a grin, she flicked her cigarette out into the street. "Well I have to get going, I should be home before my mum starts wondering where I am."

"Hey, I'll walk you home." Sirius said jumping up brushing off his pants.

"Oh, no that's okay," Max said getting up slowly twisting a little to crack her back. "I've done it a couple times before I think I'll manage."

"I don't really want to go home yet, I'll walk you it's fine." He insisted.

Max looked a little anxious, "No really, you don't need to."

"Max, I'm coming, don't argue with me. There's nothing you can do about it." Sirius said calmly throwing an arm around her shoulders. "Now which way are we going?"

Max sighed and started trudging forward. She wasn't very talkative on the walk. Sirius had seen her for the most part amused and angry. This side of Max was something entirely different. When he thought about it he'd realized that he never seen her look happy at the thought of going home. It wasn't exactly that she looked depressed or sad. More like, she just looked defeated.

"You know, I never noticed before but when you get off work you kind of linger, don't you?" Sirius asked concerned.

"Well yeah, we hang out." Max said challenging him with her tone. This wasn't a subject she felt like discussing obviously. Her eyes defiant, daring him to even try to continue with his line of thought.

"No," Sirius said slowly thinking about it, "No, you didn't like me much that first day I met you but you hung around then. In fact you told me to fuck off."

Max glared at him. "I can make it from here." She said shrugging out from under his arm.

"Okay, I'm sorry, I won't ask. None of my business." He finally conceded defeat in the topic. Taking a quick step forward to catch up with her again, he again dropped his arm around her shoulders. But this time more as a comfort for her not just as a friendly action. She was still glaring at the ground but she didn't shrug him off again. Wrapping one of her arms around him in return eventually, however her glare was soon replaced with that defeated look again.

"You know if you don't want to go home just yet, we can go to that park we went to the other day." Sirius offered.

Max looked up at him a quick glance of longing as she considered it before shaking her head and turning back to glare at her feet as if they were betraying her with every step they took.

"No, I have to get home." She said, her tone indicating that she would have to anything else. "My mum is probably already going to be mad I'm this late."

"Why don't you just lie and tell her you worked late or something?"

"My uncle owns the store. She'll know." Max said bitterly.

"Maybe you could work more hours?" Sirius suggested doubtfully.

"I'm already working as many hours as I can." She replied regretfully, then suddenly she hitched a smile on her face. "Don't worry about it, I have it under control."

Sirius raised a doubtful eyebrow. "Yeah you look like it. What, with the moping, scowling and almost burning things with that glare of yours, yeah you've totally got handle on the situation."

"Sirius." Max warned, shooting him a look that told him the conversation was officially over for the day.

"Yup, sorry got it, time for a subject change!" Sirius said straightening up and looking ahead. "I saw this flyer for a fair in this week, wanna go?"

"Where is it?"

"Brighton."

"That's an hour and a half away!"

"I know." Sirius grinned looking excited, "Sounds good already right?"

Max looked thoughtful, "…how much?"

Sirius waved a hand at her, "My treat."

"Pssht." Max said in a very unladylike tone, waving Sirius off. "Like hell it is."

"Consider it a birthday present."

"No Sirius it's fine."

"Don't worry, its really not expensive. It's just a shitty like fair, probably has about two rides and a stall of veggies or something. But it'll be fun. Wanna go?" Sirius asked again looking really eager and hopeful.

Max rolled her eyes, "Yeah, okay. I have Tuesday off, is that okay?"

"Yup, fine with me." Sirius was practically bouncing off the ground with excitement.

They stopped in the middle of the footpath and Max stepped away from him and laughed, "You're such a kid." She turned and looked at the house they stood in front of. "Well home sweet home." She said sarcastically.

It was a small blue house, one story. As Sirius took in the residence, eyes struggling against the poor light, he realized the shabby state the home was in. White paint was peeling off the house as if trying to escape the occupants, it looked just a reluctant to be there as Max did. Neither of them looked like they would take much convincing to leave the house. Weeds were growing up through the cracks in the front path leading to the weary door that seemed to sag on its hinges and a wide front window. The window had depressed looking curtains drawn across it and judging from the flickering light that danced across the material someone still occupied the front room or had perhaps fallen asleep in front of the television. By random flashed of light that escaped the curtains, Sirius was able to see the weeds that were sneaking up to the house through the footpath were actually occupying the majority of the front garden. It was strangling the dead remains of bushes and flower beds, climbing a solitary feeble looking tree, creeping up the side of the house where it was soon joined by sinister dark patches of the walls that were either bereft of paint that had once so cheerfully decorated the house or some sort of fungus. The roof looked decayed to the point that Sirius wondered if it even offered much protection. He wasn't even sure this decrepit lump of a house should even be called a home.

"You live here?" Sirius said slowly, shock evident in his face and tone.

Max's cheeks took on a slight pink tinge and she gave Sirius a defiant look, "Yes."

"It's-er-" Sirius racked his brain for an appropriate word, "um, got …character?"

Max raised an eyebrow.

"It looks like it wants to be here about as much as you do." He said, giving up on compliments. Max suddenly laughed and shook her head, still looking a bit self-conscious, but just said nothing and gave him a quick one armed hug.

"See you tomorrow." She said with a small wave.

He gave her a lopsided grin and a small wave in return, "So that's a yes to the fair?"

Max smiled and nodded, then face froze and quickly transformed into a look of horror.

"What?" Sirius asked worried, "What's wrong?"

He heard the sound of locks snapping back and suddenly the front door was thrown open. Sirius squinted into the dim lazy light that interrupted the night.

"Where the fuck have you been?" came a slurred voice from the doorway. There stood a woman in her late thirties, who Sirius could only guess was Max's mother, wearing a pair of ratty looking slacks, a faded purple shirt and too much make up. The woman lifted a claw-like hand up, cigarette dangling loosely between two fingers that were pointed accusingly at Max. "You were supposed to be home an hour ago, Alex."

The woman hadn't seemed to notice Sirius' presence as she glared at Max, Max shot a quick frightened glance at Sirius giving him a jerky hand motion.

_GO._

But Sirius was frozen on the spot, ignorant to his friends discrete attempts to make him leave.

Max's mother wobbled dangerously and Sirius noticed under her limp blonde hair, her eyes were visible as was the slightly hazed over expression they held.

She leaned forward looking quite unbalanced, getting dangerously close to Max. She jabbed forward a hand, a talon-like finger connecting with Max's shoulder making her stumble back and wince as the cigarette managed to simultaneously connect with her skin.

"_Hey!_" Sirius shouted angrily, finally catching her attention, whirling to face him her eyes seemed to lag a moment behind the movement, having trouble focusing her line of vision.

"Who the hell are you?"She demanded.

"No one." Max interrupted, "Go home Sirius."

And with a last pleading look at him she half shoved her mother back inside the house shutting the door.

Sirius winced as he heard muffled shouting and waited a few minutes unsure of how to proceed. Eventually though, shoulders slumped in defeat, he listened to Max. He began trudging back home, feeling as if he'd betrayed Max by walking away.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

There was a ding as Sirius walked through the doors of the corner store and for the first time in a week he was wasn't completely drenched from the rain. It was still a little overcast but the first partially sunny day in a while, and Sirius was fully planning to take advantage of it.

"Hey sexy!" he said happily in greeting as he practically bounced over to the counter that Max was leaning on reading a magazine.

"Mop's in the corner." She said not looking up from what she was reading, oblivious to the complete lack of rain.

"Look, I got you a present." Sirius said happily brandishing a half melted chocolate ice cream cone, while eating a vanilla one himself.

"Oo! Mine!" she said excitedly, snatching the ice cream from him, and immediately got started on repairing the damage of the sun by licking up the tendrils of ice cream that were slowly escaping down the side of the cone.

"Hey Max?" Sirius said in a slightly more serious tone than she'd heard him use before.

She looked up cautiously, "Yeah, Sirius?"

"Is everything…you know…okay…at home?" He asked awkwardly, unsure of the best way to word his question. He was looking Max dead in the eyes with an unwavering certainty that made it clear he wasn't going to shy away from the subject but at the same time he understood the delicacy of it.

Max eyes glinted dangerously, "It's fine."

"Max-"

"Sirius we're not talking about this." She said sternly, not looking away from him, waiting to make sure he would listen to her.

After a few minutes, he glanced away, breaking eye contact. He backed down looking annoyed, making it obvious to her that he was letting it drop for now but he would be sure to bring it up again, "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Well if you ever need to talk-" But he failed to finish his sentence as Max grabbed his unsuspecting hand that was holding the cone, shoving it up into his mouth, preventing him from talking.

"HA!" She exclaimed childishly.

Sirius rolled his eyes and cocked his head to the side as he sighed at her. After a couple moments of staring at her in disbelief he decided to leave the subject be for the moment. He lunged forward, wrapped his arms around her and rubbed his face all over hers, smearing her with vanilla ice cream. She tried to wiggle and writhe away from him all the time victim to an uncontrollable bought of shrieking and laughter.

When he finally released her, he sat on the counter behind them looking quite proud of himself.

She pulled herself up next to him and began wiping her face with the back of her hands, "I suppose this makes us even from the other day."

Sirius smiled, accepting her opening to a change of topic, unlike the cold silence he had been expecting when he'd played out the attempt at serious conversation in his head, "Hey I can't help it, if you put down something fun within my reach I will mess around with it, whether it be some hot girl or that water gun. Especially if it's both at the same time. You're obviously the one to blame with that." Sirius said, holding up his hands as if they were clean of any wrong doing.

"_Me?_"

"Yeah, you. You should know me well enough by now to know not to put down a water bottle next to the soap. What were you thinking?" Sirius shook his head in mock disgust.

"You've must be joking me. How the hell was I supposed to know you'd make a damn bubble weapon thing out of a water bottle and soap?" Max argued taking a bite out of her ice cream.

"You were the one that showed me how to punch the hole through the bottle cap." Sirius' reasoned.

"But not the bubbles!"

"They were for dramatic effect. Next time I'll get my theme song playing as well. It's that Beethoven song."

"Beethoven? Who listens to Beethoven? If you were any crazy old song I think you'd be more of a O Fortuna kinda guy."

"Huh?"

"I personally would have pinned you as a Zeppelin fan, Beethoven- eh not so much."

"Zeppelin?"

Max's eyes widened, "What do you mean 'Zeppelin?'" She asked mimicking the questioning tone in his voice.

Sirius looked nervous at the look Max was giving him, "What's a Zeppelin?"

"A Zeppelin," Max said slowly in an angry tone of voice, "Is a large _balloon._ _Led_ Zeppelin is a _band_."

"So which one are we talking about?"

Max grabbed at her heart, "You. Are. _Un_-believable."

Sirius looked startled, "I didn't even do anything this time!"

"Of all the Blasphemy! Zeppelin? Led Zeppelin? Doesn't ring a bell?"

Sirius looked confused and took a slurp of his ice cream.

"The Who?"

"Huh?"

"The Who!"

"How should I know? You're the music guru."

"No I meant- oh, never mind."

Sirius shook his head and took another lick of ice cream, "You seem more confused than I am, I mean really, Maxxy."

"Simon and Garfunkel?" She asked hopefully.

He just gave her a blank look and took a bite of the cone.

"The Grateful Dead?"

Sirius looked startled, "Who'd be grateful to be dead? Shouldn't it be the ungrateful dead? Or the reluctant dead?"

"No! They're the Grateful Dead! That's their name!"

"Maybe the No Choice But To Be Dead?" Sirius continued murmering.

Max looked outraged. "Were you born in a cave? Where's your culture boy?!"

"I'm sorry?" Sirius said looking startled, having only seen this kind of reaction regarding lack of knowledge from McGonagall.

"The Beatles, you _have_ to know the Beatles." Max said practically begging.

Sirius shook his head slowly.

Max stood up straight and covered her eyes.

"Are you ok?" Sirius asked hesitantly.

"No. It's too late. The damage is done." Max said taking a deep breath, running her hands through her hair in distress.

"What?" Sirius asked taken aback.

"You've broken my heart." Max said dramatically, "We've got to fix this."

"Alright." Sirius agreed, willing to do anything to calm her down.

"Imbecile." Max muttered, rubbing her temples, "…Don't know Led Zeppelin …goddamn moron."

"Max?"

"Of all the musicians, you know Beethoven." Max said throwing her hands up in exasperation.

Sirius started laughing, "I didn't mean to offend you so much."

"It's ok, I think I'll recover; I'll just have to educate you." Max said, going into the back to rinse her hands from the ice cream.

She came out again and started fiddling with the radio. The sounds flickered and interrupted each other, voices boomed then whispered and laughed, clips of songs being cut off and rejected by Max's impatient hand as it tuned, searching for the right song. Max hissed in protest at the lack of good music, murmuring encouragement to the beat up radio, occasionally adjusting the antenna.

"….Come on, come on….Ha! Yes. Led Zeppelin…" She exclaimed excitedly in triumph cranking up the volume giving the antennae a final adjustment to clear the signal. Then the words came out of the fuzz and static.

_Well there's a light in your eye that keeps shining__  
__Like a star that can't wait for the night__  
__I hate to think I've been blinded baby__  
__Why can't I see you tonight?_

_And the warmth of your smile starts a-burnin'__  
__And the thrill of your touch gives me fright__  
__And I'm shaking so much, really yearning__  
__Why don't you show up, make it all right?__  
__Yeah, it's all right._

"Turn that shit off Moony." Sirius suddenly barked from behind the hangings of his bed.

There was a pause while Sirius waited to see if his friend would acknowledge his demand, the only sound made was the music that the object of Sirius' irritation.

"No Moony, this is your room too, if you want to listen to it, Padfoot can either leave or deal with it." Sirius heard James say in a quiet voice that was meant to be heard by every occupant of the room.

"It's ok, Prongs." Remus said quietly, shifting from what ever position he was in to shut off the music. "I've got to get to the Library anyway, there's that Potions essay we have to get done."

"I'll come with you." James said, and Sirius could hear the quick snatch as James expressed his frustration towards his best friend in that simple motion of grabbing his books. "Coming, Wormtail?"

Peter could be heard to immediately just up to go, most likely afraid of the annoyance that Sirius could practically see in James' face.

"Padfoot?" James asked. When no response came he continued, "Fine we'll see you at dinner."

The door sounded harsher than usual as it shut behind his friends. Instantly guilty, Sirius put his head in his hands, it wasn't their fault. James had been trying to get through to him for the last couple of days, but Sirius had just shut him out every time.

Sirius was just as frustrated with himself for doing that to his best friend, especially after everything that he and James had been though together. But this was just one thing that Sirius had to take on by himself. Even though he was dying to tell him, he just couldn't do it for some reason. It was just one thing he couldn't share with James, no matter how much his friend wanted to help.

After ten minutes or so, Sirius peeked out, looking towards Remus' bedside table for the object of his interest. A magically operated radio was occupying the space there. He, James and Peter had gotten for Remus for Christmas in response to the only complaining Moony ever really made; no good music.

Sirius took a deep breath and stepped out from the safety of his bed, putting his feet softy on the ground, making careful deliberate steps towards the radio. The walk seemed to take for ever, and he didn't want his other friends coming back to see him doing the thing that he had just yelled at them for.

He rested his finger on the play button, considering the consequences of what he was about to do. The radio itself seemed to be mocking him, holding that which he loved and caused him so much pain at the same time. He was standing there so long it felt like the button was pulsing beneath his finger tips, urging him to just push that stupid little black button, as if it were no big thing.

He closed his eyes and breathed slowly to relax and gently eased finger down pushing in the button, till he felt that little click, and the music flowed gently back into the room.

_-__And if you promised you'd love so completely__  
__and you said you would always be true__  
__You swore that you would never leave me, baby:__  
__What ever happened to you?_

_And you thought it was only in movies__  
__As you wish all your dreams would come true__  
__It ain't the first time believe me, baby__  
__I'm standin here feeling blue__  
__Yeah I'm blue_

_Now I will stand in the rain on the corner__  
__I'll watch the people go shuffling downtown__  
__Another ten minutes no longer__  
__And then I'm turning around_

_The clock on the wall's moving slower__  
__My heart it sinks to the ground__  
__And the storm that I thought would blow over__  
__Clouds the light of the love that I found_

_Now my body is starting to quiver__  
__And the palms of my hands getting wet__  
__I've got no reason to doubt you baby,__  
__It's all a terrible mess_

_I'll run in the rain till I'm breathless__  
__When I'm breathless I'll run till I drop, hey__  
__The thoughts of a fool's kind of careless__  
__I'm just a fool waiting on the wrong block, oh yeah__  
__Light of the love that I found..._

Sirius sank slowly to the floor and buried his face in his hands as if trying to halt whatever emotional attack he was falling victim too. Pushing the palms of his hands against his eyes to counter the tingling and prickling that was rapidly overwhelming them.


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks to 2Blizzy, Loognzie, Batsman Sporks and Living-Is-Easy-With-Eyes-Closed! I forgot to say thank you at the last chapter, but the feedback is great! Sorry about being so long updating, I've had massive writers block =(

Chapter Six

Sirius Jolted awake at the sound of his alarm, immediately slamming a hand down on it, silencing it. He waited anxiously, straining his ears for any indication that anyone had been woken up.

Nothing.

As gently as he could he lifted his sheets to the side and slipped out of bed, getting to his feet. The floor boards creaked as he shifted his weight, making him freeze in panic. Another couple seconds went by without a sound and Sirius relaxed. Moving carefully, avoiding the creaky spot on his floor he went to his dresser and grabbed the clothes off the top of it that he'd pulled out the night before. He slipped on the jeans and shirt, shoving his wallet in his back pocket after checking there was still muggle money there from another time when he'd snuck out with James. Picking up his shoes he crept to the bedroom door, easing it open. The gentle snores of his father wafted down the hallway almost making Sirius sigh with relief.

They were still asleep.

If His dad was still sleeping then his mum must be as well. She'd have gotten up if she heard something and his father was a light sleeper. He always wakes up when she gets up.

Sirius turned the opposite way down the hall moving swiftly towards the stairs. Skipping the first one so as not to be betrayed by the squeaking he practically bounded down the stairs. Stopping briefly by the kitchen door to listen for Kreacher, then he was off down the hallway, out the front door and home free.

Once out the front door he quickly sat on the stoop to slip on his shoes. Cheerfully pulling the laces tight on his right shoe, hands almost trembling with agitation from his easy escape. He was tying the left shoe when he heard a slow creak from behind him and he froze.

_NO!_

He'd been so close! Why didn't he tie his shoes down the street or even run barefoot till he was out of sight?

He was so close only to be caught on the stoop tying his shoe laces!

He would never again listen when someone warned him to tie him laces. He would take the risk. He would deal with the consequences. Tripping would be better than being grounded. He should have risked tripping.

Why was he so stupid? This was something his mother had taught him. She knew this day would come, that evil hag knew that one day he would be sneaking out and out of her conditioning he would stop and tie his shoe laces. He was Pavlovs dog. Conditioned by that batty old crone and her nasally screeching voice that pierced his ears like a sharp poisoned sword. She'd taken measures against him from an early age!

Her voice grated against his eardrums as he remembered how she'd screech at him when he was little. He'd be too excited about going out and usually try to run out before he had his second shoe on.

"_Sirius! Tie your laces or you'll trip and fall!_" She'd screech at him. But when ever she'd say it, it wasn't like the other mother who made it sound like a warning, His mother made it sound more like a threat.

He had to hand it to the old harpy, she was tricky. She was a cunning wench! She was manipulative, she was underhanded, she was-

"What are you doing?"

-_not behind him!_

Sirius could have jumped for joy in that moment. He was surprised he didn't shoot off like fireworks into the atmosphere from the relief and excitement that was overflowing him now. He could still get away without being caught.

Sirius whirled around to face his brother, "Merlin Reg! you scared the crap out of me!"

"What are you doing?" Regulus repeated curiously.

"Tying my shoes what does it look like I'm doing?" Sirius replied sarcastically as he turned back to his shoes.

Regulus rolled her eyes, "Yeah but where are you going?"

"Out." Sirius said emphasizing the syllable with a final tug on his laces.

Regulus hesitated a moment before asking hopefully, "Can I come?"

"No."

"Why not?" Regulus asked shoulders slumping down, eyes pleading silently.

"You don't like my friends remember." Sirius said darkly. He still hadn't forgiven his brother for saying those things about Remus at the beginning of the summer. Although, Regulus probably had gotten his ideas about Sirius' best friend from something his parents said. Regulus tended to adopt his parents points of view.

"You mean Lupin? Regulus sneered, a look of disgust crossing his face, "Is that where you've been going all this time? You're so much better than him, why would you hang out with someone like that?"

"You can't come." Sirius repeated with a scowl. It was things like this that had driven a wedge between him and his brother. He'd always been the obedient son, but once he'd started to adopt their parents opinions Sirius had pretty much stopped spending time with Regulus. But Regulus didn't seem to see that connection.

He turned his back on his brother stepped off the stoop, walking away from his house. He was still seething with anger when he reached the convenience store, he would have completely walked past Max if she hadn't spoken up.

"How'd you go getting out?" Max asked standing to greet him.

"My runt of a brother caught me, I thought it was my mother I almost crapped my pants when he did." Sirius said angrily.

"Well you're obviously not very sneaky then are you?" Max teased

Sirius looked up at her and smiled, taking the offer she was extending to forget how angry he was, "I beg your pardon miss, but I am quite skilled! I'm like a Ninja! A stealthy ninja!-"

"Yes, those are very different from regular ninja's."

Sirius silenced her with a glare.

"Right sorry, continue." Max said trying to keep a straight face but the smirk that was slowly twitching out of the corner of her mouth made the attempt a complete failure.

"It's not my fault anyway. My Mum knew I was going to sneak out one day and she took measures against it!"

"Oh? What measures are these?"

"She taught me to tie my laces."

"The cheek!" Max exclaimed in mock outrage, slapping a hand to her cheek for effect.

"Tell me about it." Sirius nodded in agreement.

"I bet she even lied and told you it was so you wouldn't trip." Max continued in a knowing tone.

"Yup," Sirius nodded solemnly, " When I have kids I will be a good father. I will never try to trick them by pretending to show love and concern. I won't teach them to tie laces either; it'll just slow them down in life anyway."

"So you will doom your children to trip for the rest of their lives?"

"No, I said I'll be a good father. They will simply wear sandals forever." He said with a decisive nod.

Max laughed, "What about in winter?"

"They can wear socks."

Max chuckled softly and shook her head. "Okay, let's get going papa bear. I told you yesterday we need to catch the eight twenty train or we'll have to wait another hour, so let's go."

"What's the rush? It's-" Sirius looked down at his watch, "…two thirty? That can't be right…"

Max let out a loud snort before reaching out, taking off his watch, flipping it right side up, strapping it to his wrist again.

"Oooh, eight o'clock." Sirius realized, "Maxxy, what are you doing messing around with my watch we have to get going!"

Max slapped him upside the head. "The station's a ten minute walk from here, lets go."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter and skipped ahead out of her reach, turning back he challenged her, "Race ya Maxxy?"

"You don't know where you're going, how will you race me?"

"Max!" Sirius exclaimed sounding outraged, "I am a _man!_ And as a man I have an innate sense of direction!"

"Sure you do." Max said stopping in place at an intersection they'd reached, crossing her arms and looked at him expectantly. "Which way do we go now?"

"Well apparently you don't know , so I will indeed lead us to triumph. Thought you were so clever making that challenge huh? Oh how the mighty have fallen." Sirius replied dramatically and began to cross the road and go to the right.

Max laughed, reaching out to grab hold of the back of Sirius' shirt jerking him back to the corner, "If only we had time for this. I would love to follow the wanderings of a mad man."

Max gave him a shove in the right direction and they set off again at a quick pace to the station. The brisk walk to the station was pretty uneventful with the exception of Sirius' continued attempts to take the lead and show the way to station and Max abruptly stopping them ("Ow! Max stop that! I know where I'm going!") And then pointing him in the right direction with a laugh.

"Okay, so we need tickets…" Max said once they arrived at the station, "Come on."

She grabbed Sirius' arm and pulled him to a ticket booth where there was a very disinterested man sitting behind a window. Propping his head up with a stubby hand that seemed to sink into his cheek, pushing the flesh up so high it made him look like he was squinting. He lifted a mug up to his mouth and took a long noisy slurp before returning it to the countertop.

The man opened his mouth and after a heavy sigh, drawled out, "How can I help you?" Somehow he managed to make it seem like an absolute effort on his part to push the air out of his lungs to form the few short words he'd graced them with.

"Maxxy," Sirius whispered very loudly, "Why doesn't he open the window to talk to us?"

"It's protective glass, stupid."

"Well he's the one that seems stupid to me, how's he supposed to hear us?" Sirius asked before turning to the window and taking a deep breath and shouting at the top of his lungs, "TWO TICKETS TO BRIGHTON PLEASE!"

The man in the ticket booth was so startled he fell backwards off his stool, arms flailing. He was followed by several objects and papers that got caught up in his weak attempt to save himself from loss of balance. The resulting crash caught was loud enough to draw a decent amount of attention from the surrounding people. One old lady was cackling away so hard that her poof of white curling hair was bouncing around madly under its purple scarf.

"Sirius!" Max yelled in surprise, "What's wrong with you! You scared the poor man half to death!"

Sirius rolled his eyes and leaned against the counter, "I've had worse than falling off a stool, he'll be fine."

"Sir! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" Max asked as she ignored Sirius, pressing her face and hands up on the glass trying to see if the man was okay. "Sir?"

The man awkwardly pulled himself back up with the help of the bench and sat down on his stool looking a good deal more awake than before.

"Sir? Are you okay? I'm so sorry! My friend's not quite right in the head, taken a few too many blows to the head if you ask me." Max said continuing to attempt a halfway coherent response from the man.

"I beg your pardon! I'm perfectly right in the head!" Sirius argued in a mock offended tone. "I didn't think he could hear me is all!"

"Go wait over there at the stairs, dumbass!" Max said, shoving him towards the platforms before turning back to the ticket booth, "Sir…?"

Sirius shoved his hands in his pockets moodily but nonetheless obediently walked over to wait at the bottom of some stairs that lead up to the train platforms. After skeptically considering taking a seat on the filthy looking concrete steps he instead opted to lean against the wall. His hands casually rested on the cool metal rail that led the way up the staircase, occasionally breaking up the monotony of waiting by drumming his fingers or palms against it.

He switched between watching passersby and impatiently swiveling his head around towards Max. Sirius glanced impatiently down at his watch. Twelve past eight. His eyes flicked back to Max, nope still occupied at the ticket booth. How could she be taking so long? Why doesn't she just move to the next line already? The other lines were moving pretty quickly, he saw the old lady that was laughing at him minutes before already walking toward him with her ticket in hand. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, drumming his fingers on the hand rail impatiently.

"Pardon." He heard a man say brusquely.

Sirius' eyes snapped open to see a middle aged man in a suit with a briefcase knock into the old lady. In that quick moment she was shoved off balance and her bag slipped from her hand and sent clanking to the ground. Can burst from the tightly packed bag and went rolling in every direction.

"OI! Watch it you bloody bastard!" She said loudly glaring after him causing a smirk to break out from Sirius' lips.

"Sorry!" The man shouted behind him as he continued rushing up to the platform, shoving past a few more people.

Sirius pushed himself off the wall towards the lady leaning over to scoop up a few stray cans as he approached her.

"Here you go." Sirius said passing them to the grumpy little woman.

"Thank you." She said curtly snatching the cans from Sirius' hand and shoving them into the bag that was still swinging wilding from her arm. She looked up towards the platform again with a scowl, "…stupid cocksucker." She muttered before reaching for more cans slowly, looking as if she were about to tip over.

"You've got quite the mouth on you." Sirius commented with a smirk as he quickly rounded up the rest of her spilled belongings.

"Shouldn't you be vandalizing something?" She sneered at him.

"I can go vandalize him if you like." Sirius said with a winning grin, not in the least bit put off by her foul disposition. She snatched the cans out of his arms one by one depositing them into her bag.

She looked at him sternly, attempting to hold her scowl in place but the corner of her mouth seemed to be having trouble controlling the twitching impulse it was having to turn into a smile.

"Shall we?" Sirius asked offering her his arm.

"I don't need you're bloody help." She scowled practically spitting at his extended arm.

"Who said you did?" Sirius asked amusement plain in his face. He like this woman, it was very comical to see such a harmless little old woman have the attitude of a raging Chimera.

After a moments silence she nodded, "Alright then." Grabbing hold of Sirius' arm with her cool soft fingers in a strangely iron-like grip she steered them towards the staircase. The way she lifted her foot to the stair seemed like it was a little heavy for her to bear, but she somehow managed it and quickly began work on moving the other. With each step she'd lean slightly on Sirius' arm as if pushing off it and the handrail simultaneously. Sirius kept his face cheerful trying to appear oblivious to the slightly slow and laborious movements up the stairs.

Once they reached the platform they both instantly began combing the area for sight of the man from earlier. The platform was a little crowded around the top of the stairs but no one seemed to be of a mind to move out of the way. They peered through screaming children, huffing mothers, men chuckling loudly to one another, scanning in quiet excitement over the top of the crowd. Both of their faces fell slightly in disappointment when he was nowhere in sight.

"Stupid twat." The lady scowled exaggerating the lines and wrinkles around her mouth and eyes.

"I'm positively lovely thank you!" Sirius replied in mock outrage.

"Shut up, boy." She replied making him laugh, "I hope his toupee falls off."

"_SIRIUS!"_

He spun on his heel in surprise at the angry yell.

"Did I or did I not tell you to wait at the stairs?" Max exclaimed angrily as she climbed the last couple of stairs. She flicked a few loose strands of hair out of her face irritably as she advanced on him, "I swear you're like a damn two year old!"

"I _am_ at the stairs Maxxy." Sirius replied sweetly as he swung an arm over her shoulders.

"No. you're on the platform and if I didn't hear your god awful obnoxious voice I wouldn't have known where the hell you were." She glared, crossing her arms but remaining under his arm, "We almost didn't get a ticket because of you."

Sirius waved her words away carelessly, "Naw! It's all good."

"He's a trouble maker this one." The old lady agreed with a disapproving nod.

"_What?_" Sirius objected pointing at her accusingly, "Traitor! You were encouraging me!"

"Who? Me?" She asked sporting a very convincing look of shocked innocence on her weathered old face.

"Sirius! Leave that poor woman alone!" Max scolded smacking him upside the head.

"_What?" _He sputtered again, looking between them incredulously before crying out dramatically, "Betrayed by everyone! I'm so hurt!"

"What are you doing up here anyway?"

"Some asshole shoved into Granny over here and we were going to get a little revenge."

"You would." Max sighed, wondering how she hadn't managed to pull a muscle with the amount of times she'd rolled her eyes since meeting Sirius.

There was a loud _bing _on the overhead speaker and an announcer informed them in a crackling voice that their train was arriving along with a warning to stand back from the edge of the platform. As the train pulled up to the platform people crowded towards it, pushing lightly in an attempt to be the first to get onto the train.

Sirius started coughing loudly accompanied with disgusting hacking noises that stopped people from pushing so urgently towards him.

"Didn't you go to the doctor yet dear?" the old lady asked in a kindly way resting a gentle hand on his arm.

"Yeah, he was pretty worried." Sirius said with a loud sniff and cleared his throat again, more people backed away. Max snorted and rolled her eyes at him.

"You poor dear," the old woman commented with a light frown, "Is it still contagious?"

"Stupidity isn't contagious."Max muttered only to be ignored by her two companions.

"Yeah." Sirius said with a shrug turning towards the train as the door sprung open. No one moved towards them until Sirius, Max and the old lady had gotten far enough into the train that human contact wasn't an issue.

"That laugh of yours is actually pretty frightening." Sirius commented casually as he sat in a seat next to max and the old lady who hadn't stopped hooting and cackling since they boarded the train. His comment only served to drive her into more laughter.

"You two are incorrigible." Max said rolling her eyes again and leaning back into her seat.

"Aww, Maxxy you love me" Sirius said with a huge grin as he turned slightly and leaned his head down to rest his chin on her shoulder.

Max put her fingertips on his forehead and gave him a light shove to dislodge his head from its resting place, "You disgust me."

Sirius laughed and leaned back in his seat laying an arm across her shoulders, "No I don't."

"I think I'd know who does and doesn't disgust me and you most certainly do." She replied crossing her arms stubbornly across her chest. "You're the most-"

"_Ahem._"

Max and Sirius' looked up to see who had dared disturb their banter. Before them stood none other than Mr. Toupee himself, in all his self righteous glory. He looked down pointedly at the two. Sirius and Max exchanged a confused look, waiting for him to say something.

"Uh…gesundheit?" Sirius said when the man said nothing and turned back to Max, "You were saying? I'm the most…?"

"Uh…" Max said hesitantly, giving the man a slightly annoyed look because he was still staring at them., "Um, yeah, you're the most-"

"_Ahem."_

"Gesundheit." Sirius said to the man, deliberately ignoring the man's continued attempt to get their attention. He turned back to Max, "Continue."

"Pigheaded-"

"_Ahem."_

"Gesundheit."

"Idiotic-"

"_AHEM."_

"_Can we help you?" _Max snapped at the man turning in her seat to give him her full attention.

The man looked offended by her tone but with a small scolding glare in her direction _finally_ said what he'd bothering them about, "Well kids," he began, putting a certain amount of emphasis on the 'kids' part of those opening words, "it's just that there's some older people standing here…" He's trailed off leaving his words hanging in the air.

Sirius and Max looked around the carriage. Sure there'd been a decent amount of people on the platform but almost all of them had found seats. The 'older people' he was talking about were a young girl in her twenties, a boy about their age with some rather intense looking piercings, a couple men in suits and himself, none of whom looked to be past their mid-forties.

"Oh, I get it!" Sirius exclaimed in a loud voice, "You want us to give up our seat for you because we're kids."

Mr. Toupee didn't look too happy about the attention Sirius was calling to them but nonetheless stood his ground, casting him a dark look as he stood over them.

"You know Sirius," Max said, "That's actually pretty rude of us."

The man looked towards her with a trace of gratitude for understanding his point of view.

"I mean," She continued, "There's no need to make a scene, "This is a respectable looking man, there has to be something wrong with him, you know some kind of leg injury or back problem. I mean, it's not possible that he's just a ridiculously lazy old fart that doesn't want to stand up for another three stops and targeted us just because we're kids. Yes, _we're_ the ones being rude."

"Respectable looking?" Sirius questioned Max while keeping his gaze on the man that stood before them. "Are you sure Maxxy? Because if you ask me he looks more like the kind of man that _shoved _into my_ grandmother_ and scattering her belongings all over the place and didn't stay to help her pick them up and see if she was alright because he had to catch _this very train."_

The man was looking a little pink in the face now as well as looking a little angry and embarrassed, "Now, see here-!" he began only to be cut off.

"No, you see here!" The old lady sudden growled jumping up from her seat and entering the fray, "You see these two youngsters and figure you can bully them out of their seats to suit your needs? Sirius, is a lovely young man! You're a pompous bag of wind! If you're going to be lazy useless sack of shit, then fine. Here, take my seat. I can see how your legs are failing you and the strength has left your body. Take my seat instead of this fine young man's, you inconsiderate bastard." She stood up and moved to the side looking at the man expectantly.

By now their little argument had drawn the attention of the rest of the other carriage occupants and the man was getting quite a few disapproving looks.

"Go on take my seat. God only knows _you _deserve to be sitting." The old woman urged while giving him a scathing look.

"No Grandma, it's all right we'll move." Sirius said in a resigned sort of way, "Come on Max, you heard the man. He needs the seats, most definitely both of them for him and his obnoxiously self righteous attitude."

Max, Sirius and the old lady all stood clear of the seats giving the man expectant and heated looks. He stood absolutely stock still, glaring at the three of them turning a little pink in the face. An announcement on the speakers over heard disturbed the four of them for a moment as it declared that the next station was coming up on the right.

"So you don't want the seat then?" Sirius asked cocking an eyebrow at the man. After receiving no response he turned to the rest of the carriage, "Does anyone else need a seat?" Silence. "Nope? Okay then."

The three of them sat down glaring in silence at the man as he moved away from them and after a few minutes bolted out the train doors as soon as they came to a stop at the next platform. They burst into laughter the moment he was out of sight.

"Okay that was a little mean," Max admitted after they'd finally stopped laughing at the priceless look the mans face had while he was escaping. "I mean we are _supposed_ to give up our seats for people who need them more."

"Maxxy, normally I'd agree with you, but that guy was a rude bastard." Sirius said as he stretched back laying his arms along the seats.

They all looked at the end of the carriage when the connecting door between carriages slid open with a loud bang and a man in a uniform strode in.

"Tickets! Get out your tickets!" He said loudly moving towards the closet person to him, checking everyone's train tickets.

"Here." Max said pulling some small papers out of her pocket, shoving one into Sirius' hand.

He looked down at it, staring intensely at the ticket. The writing looked all faded and mostly rubbed off in places. He shifted his grasp on the envelope, peering through a hole that had worn through a corner. Unfortunately the change in position moved the ticket out of range of the hole and Sirius was back to square one. He made an irritated noise and yanked a frustrated hand through his hair, thoroughly annoyed with himself. He threw the envelope down on his bed, burying his face in his hands, slowly rubbing his temples in an attempt to ease the pressure the object before him was causing.

He was sure that was the train ticket from the day they went to the fair. What was it doing in that envelope? Why'd did she put a train ticket in there? What else was in there? He wanted nothing more than to open the envelope and see its contents but at the same time the mere thought of it absolutely terrified him.

His mind went back to the ticket and the fair. A small sad smile curved up the corners of his lips, and his irritation softened as he remembered that day. The fair. _It was a pretty shoddy excuse for a fair_ he smirked at the thought, remembering how when they'd finally gotten there Max had turned to him, hands on her hips a small scowl across her features.

"_This _is what we came for? You put me through all that crap for this?"

He could see how it would bother her, it had pretty much consisted of a Ferris wheel and a handful of game booths. It _was _crap. But he'd loved it anyway, and so did she once she got over her first impression. How nice it had been for both of them to get away. It was like they were free for that day, they'd left all that stupid shit behind them. They didn't have to worry about work or home or parents, it was _nice._

Suddenly Sirius was overcome with a surge of emotion. He needed to see that ticket. He needed it in his hand. It was like his life depended on it, his sanity, everything. Panic surged through him as he looked at the envelope, he couldn't stand it being in between him and actually holding that ticket. He needed it to feel complete. That little bit of paper was the only thing that would be able to connect him to her. He'd felt so out of place and disconnected since getting that envelope and that ticket was like a beacon through the fog.

"Ugh!" He growled in frustration, giving into his panic. In a frenzy he took hold of the envelope that had taunted him for far too long and hastily grabbed at the hole in the corner tearing brutally at the paper. The effect was instantaneous; the panic left him only to be replaced with an awful mix of relief and dread. The envelope tore easily apart, spilling its contents over his bed cover in a slight scramble of noises.

He looked in shock at what lay before him, slowly realizing what he'd done. He grimly set his face and reached out to the little square of paper. He looked at it, slowly registering in his mind what was before him.

Then slowly he exhaled, the dread he was feeling completely left him and he was filled with relief. Strange enough he hadn't realized how much better he'd feel knowing what the contents of the envelope were. He didn't know what he'd been expecting but he certainly wasn't expecting the pile of odd trinkets that lay before him. He clasped his hand together, engulfing the ticket, resting his head lightly against his hands. The worst was over now.


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry this took forever!**

**Disclaimer! I don't own J.K. Rowling's stuff.**

Chapter Seven

Sirius stared up at the sky, utterly relaxed as he watched clouds spinning slowly overhead. Despite their presence, it was a beautiful day. The sky was a bright and happy blue that went on forever only interrupted by cheerful white puffy clouds. He didn't know exactly how a cloud could look cheerful but these ones definitely managed it, maybe it was just because they weren't grey.

He felt the slight pressure of Max's head shifting as she readjusted her position, the top of her head digging into his shoulder slightly before settling back again. They'd been doing it for a while, laying quietly, occasionally breaking into conversation or lazy laughter at a sudden thought. It had been a very blissful afternoon. The cloud's spinning was slowing down again, so slow now it was almost stopped in its path. Sirius tensed up his leg and gave another gentle push against the ground, sending the merry-go-round off again, spinning the clouds round and round. He and Max lay in a line, heads next to each other, feet dangling off the metal disk as it spun. They were surprisingly comfortable in between the poles bracing their arms on to stop from sliding off.

"That one looks like a duck." Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Which one?"

"That one."

"What? The one that's moving?" Max smirked

"Don't you see it?"

"I dunno, what kinda duck you think you see, but I see no duck shaped clouds."

"It's that big one with the bulge."

Max smirked, "You would see the big one with the bulge."

"Oi! Get your mind out of the gutter!" Sirius said in mock outrage.

"Why are clouds always friendly things anyways? You've seen a duck and three bunnies so far. Where are the tigers and piranhas I ask you?"

"They're clouds. They're fluffy. Fluffy things can't be fierce; could you ever really be frightened of a giant cotton ball?"

"You obviously haven't seen the Holy Grail."

"What?"

"Monty Python an- oh never mind!" Max said waving her hand dismissively at him before returning it to its previous position. "I don't understand how you don't know anything about anything."

"Nah, I just know more things about other things than anything." He explained making Max smile and roll her eyes.

"Shut up." She commanded so as to cut off any further nonsense babble from her companion, "I'm kinda hungry; wanna go grab an early dinner or something?"

"Yeah sure- no wait, ugh," Sirius groaned looking at his watch, "I gotta go, my parents are expecting me home now-ish."

"What for?" Max asked rolling over to face Sirius. "You never have to leave this early."

"They're having this stupid dinner party, it would be 'improper and noticeable if I were absent'" He said taking on a high pitch voice in a poor attempt of an impression of his mother.

Max laughed, "Oh well, can't have that, can we?"

"I wish I didn't have to go." Sirius said as a dark expression came over his face, "I hate all those people."

"I wish we never had to go, we should just stay out here all night."

Sirius smiled at the thought as he stood up, "Yeah that would be better, I'll bring the blankets, you bring the food?"

Max grinned "Now that's not fair! Sticking me with getting the food! Where would I get a never ending food supply?"

Sirius shrugged, "You're the money here, I'm no good."

"Well I already knew that."

"Oh, ha ha."

Max smiled and stood up, brushing off her pants. "So I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Of course!" Sirius said wrapping his arms around her shoulders in a light hug. "I'll have to tell you about all the terrible things they subject me to tonight."

"Ugh, I have to listen to your moaning and groaning all day?" Max smirked.

"I beg your pardon! You should feel honoured by any and all inclusion in my life!"

This declaration was only met with laughter and a hand playfully shoving his head.

"Oi!" he said swatting her arm away. He swiped out a hand at her, just missing her own head as she ducked and danced cheerfully out of reach.

She came to a stop just outside the gates of the playground at the sidewalk tilting her head to the side, a cheeky smile gracing her lips as she waited for him to catch up. She looked vaguely antsy, fueled by a nervous excitement that was awaiting retaliation, ready to jump out of the way. Sirius smiled in amusement at her behavior, she was being uncharacteristically cheerful compared to when they normally have to head home.

"What's up with you?" He asked as he slid his hands into his pockets, stopping a short distance from Max.

"What? Nothing. I'm just waiting for the revenge attack." She said dramatically, pushing her brown hair out of her eyes and tucking it behind an ear.

"I'll get you back later." He shrugged casually, nevermind that light teasing and a shove of the hadn't really warrented any sort of revenge attack.

"I don't believe you." She accused putting her hands on her hips.

Sirius shrugged, "I have to catch you off guard."

"Not gonna happen. I'm always on watch." She said confidently as she rocked back and forth on her heels. "Nothing's gonna slip by me."

Sirius' mouth automatically quirked up into a smile at the challenge, "You think so huh?"

"Absolutely."

He took a few slow, deliberate steps by her towards his home –ugh, he was gonna get so much shit from his mum for being late- "I'll get you. When you're least expecting it."

She turned as he walked by her, making sure she was always facing him, her twinkling eyes constantly watching.

"Oh Max- you've got a bug on your shirt."

"WHERE?" She instantly shrieked, jumping and spinning, smacking swiping at her arms and shirt. As she fought her invisible enemy Sirius was overcome by a round of barking laughter. Her reaction was absolutely priceless.

"I'm satisfied." He said with a contented nod. He smiled feeling a happiness swelling in his stomach at this small moment, it was silly and inconsequential but it somehow was perfect. Max stopped checking herself to glare at Sirius and he smiled happily in return.

That moment kept replaying in his mind like his own personal mantra. It was all he could do to keep himself from snapping. Everything went downhill from that moment: he was late home and got blasted by his mum for it, had to dress up in his uncomfortable dress robes, got interrogated by Mr. Rosier- one of tonight's ever so bloody lovely dinner guest- and pretty much listen to and suffer through a power-hungry, pure blood mania themed evening.

How was it even possible for such a peaceful and amazing day to come to this kind of end? How could the Universe and all things magical allow this? It's like anytime something good happens it has to be balanced out back to neutral with unequivocal malevolence. Although the way the evening was going Sirius was sure that the evil would blow the good out of the water. The Wilkes and Rosiers' were both present which unfortunately for Sirius meant Evan Rosier and Terrell Wilkes. All evening they'd been trying to get a rise out of Sirius, although in a more discrete manner than usual which was as much as they dared under the noses of Mr. and Mrs. Black. Although they didn't really need much help considering how the direction of current conversation was sitting with Sirius.

"Albus Dumbledore is a weak minded fool," Mr. Wilkes stated with a pointed nod, "Letting all sorts of riff raff into that school; blood traitors and mudbloods, all sorts of filth and contamination!"

Mr. Wilkes stuck Sirius as a boisterous man that said far too much. He been very open about his opinions and Sirius had been trying his best to control himself from doing something that would get him into too much trouble.

"Yeah, it's pretty unbelievable the kind of scum that he allows there." Sirius said angrily looking pointedly at Evan and Terrel. The two boys glared back but said nothing. Sirius winced as the point of his mothers shoe attacked his shin. He looked towards Mrs. Black to see her cold warning look before she turned back to her guests conversation.

"Here, Here!" Mr. Rosier chimed in raising his glass and taking a drink before continuing darkly, "The standards of Hogwarts have severely declined in his coming. It's like he has no shame! He just lets any old person in, is it even a requirement to possess magical talent now?"

"I agree father, while Slytherin remains pure, you should see the kinds of people that reside in the other houses." Evan shook his head in disgust, "I pity Sirius here for having to put up with them."

Sirius glared at the boy's smirk as he was thrown into the snake pit.

"Oh yes my boy," Mr. Wilkes turned to Sirius, his expression hinting at a sneer. Out of the corner of his eye Sirius saw the slight tick in his fathers' jaw and a coldness seem to shadow his mothers face, both so minute but so obvious to him. This conversation was going in what could be a dangerous direction for his parents, they didn't want to draw any more attention than necessary to Sirius' 'shame'. "My son has told me that Gryffindor and Hufflepuff in particular are quite …overrun. What do you think? It must be frustrating."

"I manage." Sirius said angrily through clenched teeth under the commanding stares of his parents.

"How about you Terrel? Going well in school?" Sirius' mother asked effectively ending any attention being paid to Sirius' embarrassing social associations.

"He's not doing as well as we'd hoped," Mr Wilkes answered for his son, "But he takes after his old man in Quidditch don't you my boy."

Sirius was getting sick of the 'my boy's from this darkly jovial man. His jolly demeanor was an off-putting and blatant lie. Sirius had seen it, his cruelty and malice was hidden well but it was still there.

Terrel smiled at the praise and continued, "Yes, I made captain, the cup's going to be ours this year."

"Best chaser there is!" Mr. Wilkes stated.

Sirius bit back a scathing comment about a fumble Terrel made the year before in the first game that had cost Slytherin their standing.

"Too bad you can't play anymore Sirius, why'd you miss the last game of the year by the way?" Evan asked, his face not betraying his knowledge of Sirius being in the hospital wing, having been blinded in a duel by Evan himself.

Sirius shrugged and gave a false grin, he held back an angry twitch he made towards his wand. He was trying not to give Evan any satisfaction at making him miss the most important game of the year on his account but more importantly for losing a duel against him, "I was sick, besides it didn't stop us from winning the cup did it?"

Rosier was still smirking and Sirius' hand moved to sit on the wand that was in his pocket, clenching his jaw angrily.

"Well this year will be different," Mr. Rosier commented, "With young Terrel here as captain the team's bound to be unstoppable. Already got some new strategies in mind I suppose?"

"Of course sir, unfortunately nothing I can mention in front of the opposition." Terrel said in what was supposed to be a good-natured way, but was accompanied by a smug superiority that told his real feelings towards Sirius.

Sirius honestly couldn't care less about Wilkes' Quidditch plays. He just wanted to beat that smug look off his pretty boy face. He hated everyone at this table. He hated this dinner. He just wanted to get out. Sirius was suddenly gripped by an idea, nothing that he hadn't done before but definitely nothing he'd considered doing in the middle of a dinner party. He could leave.

But he would be noticed, he argued with himself.

It would be so easy though, just excuse himself to go to the bathroom, out the window –the small window-, don't the drainpipe –the drainpipe he'd always considered but never been desperate enough to try shimmying down- and then he'd be free!

He'd get so much shit from his parents later though. It would embarrass them so much.

_It would embarrass them so much_. Sirius' mouth quirked up ever so slightly before he could catch himself. He looked across the table towards his mother and saw the look she was giving was practically seething.

_Don't you dare,_ the look said.

Sirius scowled at how watchful she was but at the same time couldn't help but feel a little smug that he had the potential to upset her so much with less than a smile.

She knew he was up to something so he'd have to wait. Not that it was likely he'd get a chance to excuse himself and not have her hovering about but he needed to at least try to get the hell out of here. He just needed to keep an eye out for an opportunity.

That opportunity didn't present itself until they'd moved to the parlour for tea. Sirius was too busy trying to suppress his anger at the chosen topics of conversation to notice that his mother had momentarily excused herself. His attention was drawn to her absence however, when his brother discretely kicked his foot.

"Pay attention, dumbass." He muttered nodding toward Kreacher who was extending a teacup out to him.

Sirius accepted the cup with a scowl as his father and their dinner guests erupted into laughter at a story Mr. Wilkes had just told.

"Look, it's almost over, can you just not be a prat for another hour?" Regulus quietly demanded with a glare.

"Wait," Sirius perked up glancing at the other occupants of the room, hope flaring up in his stomach, "Where's the she-devil?"

"Regulus rolled his eyes at his brother, "She's gone off to show Mrs. Wilkes and Mrs. Rosier the new Davignon piece, I sear, she loves that painting more than-"

But Sirius honestly didn't give a fuck about what his mother loved, he just knew that he had this small window of opportunity to take advantage of. He put the teacup and saucer on the table with a clink and stood up abruptly.

"Sirius? What are you doing?" Orion black asked, a hint of a threat lay under his tone. His question attracted the attention of the other occupants of the room.

"Bathroom." Sirius grunted turning and weaving between the couches as he strode out of the room before he could be stopped. He was definitely going to get hell for his impolite manner, but he didn't give a shit, he couldn't stand being with those pricks any longer.

He left the room and leapt up the stairs taking them two at a time, he felt as if at any second his mother would jump out and shriek at him to get back downstairs. He reached the landing and practically threw himself at the bathroom. Whirling quickly around so his shoes squeaked on the tiled floor, he snapped the door shut with both hands holding it in place like it would burst open if he released it. After a few moments silence to tell him no one was following, he clicked the lock and spun taking three long strides to reach the window. Quickly throwing it open he squeezed his head and shoulders out taking a deep breath of freedom.

Now down to business, he looked to his right at the drain pipe, his ticket to escape. His shoulders immediately sagged in disappointment. The metal pipe clung meekly to the side of the building, looking old and neglected. There was no way that thing would hold his weight. He momentarily considered magically reinforcing it but he knew that he'd be caught for underage magic, which would pretty much instantly land him in trouble. He smirked at the thought; an owl disrupting his parents little dinner party to say that he'd been doing illegal magic to escape down a drain pipe.

His parents would be pissed.

It would be _hilarious_.

They'd lock him away for the rest of the summer.

It was _so_ tempting just for their reaction.

He shook his head with a smile, his mind instantly playing Remus' reprimands and James and Peter hysterical with laughter if they found out his willingness to risk his neck by climbing a shitty old drain pipe to escape a tea party.

With a last longing look at the drain he slid the window closed. Just in case anyone was waiting outside, he flushed the toilet and washed his hands. He stared in the mirror, mentally preparing himself to endure another hour of torture.

Sirius didn't get to do so nearly as long as he'd wanted when he was interrupted by a fist pounding on the door.

Behold the she-devil.

"Sirius! What the hell are you doing in there?"

"Fuck off, Evans." Sirius said rubbing his face tiredly.

How long had he been standing there? He didn't care if he missed detention, he skipped out on the last few but if Lily Evans was angry enough to come up to his dorm and bang on the bathroom door, then he must be pretty late.

"SIRIUS BLACK, GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE THIS BLOODY MINUTE!" Lily yelled through the door, "YOU THINK I DON'T HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN SURPERVISE YOUR BLOODY DETENTION? YOU'RE TWENTY FIVE MINUTES LATE AND THAT'S TEWNTY FIVE MINUTES I WASTED AND HAVE TO LOSE AGAIN WHEN YOU ADD IT ON TO YOUR TIME! THAT'S ALMOST BLOODY HOUR, BLACK, AND WE HAVE O.W.L'S COMING UP, NOW STOP WASTING MY TIME AND GET THE FUCK OUT HERE!"

"Alright, alright woman. Don't get your knickers in knot!" Sirius muttered. Sheesh does she sound stressed!

He stepped out into his dorm to see a quite irate Lily Evans, flaming red hair bunched up in a messy bun, uniform looking messier than was standard but definitely more comfortable- like she hadn't had the time to change but was definitely not in the mood for her shirt t be tucked in.

"Come on," She snapped, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and dragging him out of the room and down the stairs to the common room.

"I'm not a bloody dog on a leash Evans, let me the fuck go!" He was vaguely aware of his friends sniggering in their corner of the common room. Everyone present had apparently heard her shouting and watched as she ignored his comments and continued to drag him as he awkwardly crouched to make up for their height difference. She stopped at a couch, releasing him as she grabbed her book bag and swung it over her shoulder, picked up a pile of books and shoved them into Sirius' arms, then grabbed another for herself.

"Move before I make you." She growled, looking at him in rage.

Sirius rolled his eyes but did as she said, marching solemnly out of the tower.

An hour later Lily and Sirius had situated themselves in a potions classroom. Lily was practicing wand movements, occasionally stopped to check a book or scribble something down on her parchment. Sirius meanwhile was scrubbing half-heartedly at a particularly old and tortured looking cauldron. He was more focused on his memory from earlier; he'd snuck out after the party -snuck out the proper way, that is- when his mother had quit watching him like a hawk. Suspicious old hag. The proper way, depending on the parents, was simply walking out the front door, or the back he supposed. His mother was already in bed, his father was working in the study, so a little while after he went to bed Sirius just got up walked past in his pajamas as if he were going to the kitchen for water and headed out the front door. They never seem to notice that there's no return journey, or at least not for a while anyways.

He walked over to Max's place and knocked on her bedroom window. He'd given her a bit of a fright he remembered with a smirk. When she'd pulled back her curtains her face was an amusing mixture of surprise, anger and just a hint of being pleased to see him. She'd crawled out the window and after giving him a fair punch in the stomach for doing that in the dead of night, they'd gone and settled down at the end of the block while he ranted about his stupid parents and their friends and Rosier and Wilkes. She sat in silence smirking at his outrageous and dramatic exaggerations of the evening, puffing away on her cigarette.

Merlin, he missed her.

If only-

"What are you doing?" Lily glared at him, disturbing his thoughts.

Sirius looked down and realized he'd stopped scrubbing all together.

"Sorry." Sirius said, though not really sorry in the slightest.

"Don't be sorry, just get it done so we can leave." Lily snapped, turning back to her work.

He got back to scrubbing, noticing out of the corner of his eye that every now and then she'd glance up to check on him, scowl then continue working.

It was pretty annoying, normally he wouldn't care, but he wasn't in the mood. It just wasn't as funny when he was trying to wallow in his own self-pity he thought bitterly.

"You don't have to watch me you know, I'll be a good boy and stay till it's done. You can go." He bit out.

"No, actually, I can't," Lily countered angrily, "You've skipped out on your last couple of detentions so now you need a bloody babysitter."

"Shouldn't the Heads be doing this then?"

"They've got N.E.W.T's coming up so they shunted the task onto us prefects. Thanks a lot," Lily added sarcastically.

"How'd I get graced with your delightful presence then? Why didn't Remus do it?"

"He tried to offer but since you two are friends he wasn't allowed, like he'd help you or something." Lily rolled her eyes, "If you didn't hex the head boy's little brother last year maybe he'd be more inclined to have let him, but as it stands he doesn't want to make your life any easier."

"Aw, so you offered then Lilikins?"

"_Don't call me that_."

Sirius made a weak impression of a smirk, vaguely amused that his unenthusiastic attempt at getting a rise out her was successful.

"And no, I wasn't the first choice but after you blew off detention last time and Tim couldn't-"

"Who?"

"Tim Jones,"

_Blank stare._

"The sixth year, Ravenclaw prefect," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Continue." Still no clue who he was.

"Well he couldn't get you from your dorm since he's not a Gryffindor. So obviously the next choice was to be a Gryffindor."

"So you?"

"Apparently, I'm scary or something." Lily said sounding slightly offended at the description.

Sirius let out a bark or laughter, "Fair enough." He continued scrubbing, "So how bored are you right now?"

"What?" Lily asked in confusion.

"That was possibly our longest conversation not to mention our most civilized. How bored are you?"

Lily scrunched up her face saying slowly, almost cautiously, "I'm not bored, I'm just… stuck."

"How so?" Sirius was a little surprised that he was talking so much. He hadn't even talked this much to his mates for the couple of weeks. Though it was nice, talking without being bothered about why he was acting weird.

"Maybe I'm just tired or stressed or something, but I can't for the life of me get this spell."

"Which one?"

"Disillusionment Charm! I just can't do it!" Lily said finally sounding as panicked as she really felt, "And I just _know_ it'll be on the O.W.L's! I was out that day and Meghan's stupid notes are bloody _useless_!"

She looked pretty stressed, it seemed like she was about to crack or something. Sirius didn't know why everyone went absolutely nuts over O.W.L's every year. He remembered in third year when he and James had blown up Rolf Hodgens' Notes, he'd _flipped_! It was hysterical! They hadn't actually blown up his notes, just hid the real ones and used blank parchment. But it was enough. He almost laughed as he remembered the Hodgens chasing them all the way around the common room.

"It's not funny! Stop smiling!" Lily exclaimed in a shrill voice. "I knew I shouldn't have talked to you. Stupid stuck up Sirius Black and-"

"Calm down Evans! I wasn't smiling at you!" Sirius defended quickly, "Damn woman! Don't freak out!"

"Don't you 'woman' me!" Lily threatened, her temper heating up, standing and pointing a finger at him threateningly.

He pictured Max in that exact same stance after he'd scared her that night. Brown hair blowing around her face, not looking remotely intimidating in her tank top, pajama shorts and bunny slippers.

_Focus!_

"No- ugh!" Lily was so frustrating, Sirius wanted to pull his hair out, "Stop getting so defensive about _everything_! I'll help you!"

"Wait- You'll do _what_ now?"

Sirius got up and crossed over to her, ignoring the suspicious looks she was sending him. He snatched up the notes and scanned through them. He had no idea why he was helping her, maybe to distract himself. Or to shut her up. Either way made sense in his mind.

"Well no wonder you're not getting it! These notes are all wrong!"

"They are?" Lily asked in an amusingly desperate mix of relief and hope. "So it's not me? I'm not a hopeless failure?"

"Not in the slightest," He sat down, "Okay the problem is that it say here to do a Amaribius flick, but it's more of a swish, not the quick one, I can never remember the proper name but it sounds really similar-"

"Amarniverous?"

"That's the one! Anyway, she probably just wrote it down wrong- but anyway it's like-" Sirius pulled out his wand and made a complex swishing motion, "-that."

Two hours later with the disillusionment charm down and plenty more group studying done Sirius and Lily looked at the clock in surprise.

"Shit Sirius, I've got to go, detention was supposed to be over earlier and I was going to meet up with Meghan to study."

Sirius snorted, "Like she's much use."

"Hey!"

"Sorry." Not really.

She scowled at him lightly but quickly changed her expression back to worry, "Well anyway, I need to go, but you're not done."

"That's alright, Evans, I stay here like a good little boy." Sirius said returning to his table.

Lily bit her lip nervously as she glanced at the door. Then she hunched her shoulders and pulled her wand out quickly cleaning the remainder of the cauldrons.

Sirius looked at her in surprise.

"Don't look at me like that." Lily scowled beginning to pack up her things, "Don't make a thing of it, I just- owe you for, well, you know and- this isn't a thing! It's not going to be a regular occurrence!"

"Oh- er, thanks." Sirius said awkwardly. She was one weird bird.

"This doesn't mean I'll let things slide, nothing's different."

"Er- right."

"So, uh, see you later." She said, swinging her bag up onto her shoulder and grabbing all the books, somehow managing to balance what had been a two person job on the way over in her arms. She cast one last scowl at him before heading out the door like his agreement was somehow offensive.

Sirius sat back down at a desk, not quite ready to go back to the Gryffindor tower and face the boys and that mesmerizing envelope.


End file.
